Time Is Running Out (ON HIATUS)
by WistalaJizara279511
Summary: It's a new year at Sky High, and more drama is going to unfold. Lash is dumbfounded by a new girl, Will gets weak in the knees, Warren burns with a passion, Zach glows with a hard-core crush,and Speed's world slows down. Who's doing this to them? R&R plz! (*ON HIATUS*)
1. Welcome to Sky High

'…_Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen…'_

I was sitting in the highest branches of a tree in a little neighborhood, counting the lights as they went out. Once fifteen more lights in the houses went out, I snuck down from the tree and walked across the street to a house that I knew all too well. The Stronghold house was mostly dark except for two lights: one in the living room and one in Will's bedroom.

Yes, I know the Commander and Jetstream. They took me in after Principal Powers and Sonic Boom rescued me and my siblings from a villain's hideout. But they didn't get there in time, though. He had somehow found a way to make normal people (or kids, actually, since it only worked on us) super and he had already done so to us. About three days after we were rescued, we were all immobilized with pain for a month. And at the end of the month, everyone found out why we were in so much pain: we had grown wings on our backs and our bodies had changed to accommodate them. Our bones became hollow, our lungs stretched a little farther than normal, and our metabolisms had sky-rocketed. Even our hair and eyes changed color. It was a terrible time for us all, even for the heroes. For us, it was because we would never be normal again. For them, it was because they hadn't stopped evil in time to save innocent lives.

But the heroes tried to make up for it. Every hero and heroine in town heard about us, and they all chipped in to buy us a huge house all to ourselves. We loved it, and we all agreed that when we were old enough, we would attend Sky High. We made that promise nine years ago, and we had already gotten a letter from Principal Powers that the new school year would start and we were to attend. And boy oh boy were we excited when we read that letter! And we were the first stop for the bus, too! We could hardly sleep for the following weeks, but here we were, twenty-four hours from seeing our favorite heroes again and going to a place where we can fit in.

I couldn't stay indoors tonight, so I got on the computer and searched where the Strongholds lived, deciding to pay them a visit. And here I am, in front of their house, feeling like a total creeper. '_You haven't seen them in years and you decided to visit them. Now you're here and you can't turn back! Just keep going!'_ My mental pep talk wasn't helping my situation much, but I was right. I was already here, so might as well face it. I walked up to the door and raised my hand to knock it, but I hesitated. '_What if they don't remember me? What am I supposed to say? "Hi! Remember me? I'm one of the girls you didn't save from the villain in time before he did science experiments on us and you felt guilty about it for months! Remember?" Yeah right! Like I would say that! I'm not a total psychopath!' _Sometime during my mental argument with myself, I guess Will was going to visit a friend and he had opened the door, finding me with my hand raised to knock and looking slightly out of it. I stared at him for a moment, thinking about how much he's grown since I last saw him. _'He looks like his mom, but his eyes are SO his dad's.' _But he just kept staring at me, surprised at my multiple-shades-of-blue hair and aquamarine eyes.

He finally regained his composure after a few seconds. "Um, are you looking for someone?" he asked.. _'Focus, Malie, focus!'_

I leaned in closer so I could whisper in his ear. I didn't exactly want anyone to hear, not that there was anyone around.

"Are the Commander and Jetstream home? I'd really like to see them." I pulled back, and he stared at me with these big, stunned eyes for a moment before his eyes took a deadly serious glare. I giggled a bit, tilting my head towards my shoulder, looking at him from the side. My knee-length hair fell over my shoulder a bit, slightly making my eyes a little darker and, to Will, a bit sexier. "Don't worry, I don't bite. And I wouldn't even think about trying to fight a Stronghold, Will." He was a bit stunned at that, and I could see his face get a little pink on his cheeks.

"U-uh, y-yeah, their home. Want me to get them for you?" His stutter was a little cute, but he was definitely not my type. I nodded, and he turned around slightly to yell into the house.

"Mom! Dad! There's someone here to see you!" He looked back at me, like he was trying to figure out how I knew that his parents were the famous Commander and Jetstream. A few seconds later, I heard a woman yell back from inside, like she was at the back.

"Who is it, honey?" I looked at Will, knowing that he was just as curious. "My name's Malie. And Will, you might want to move out of the way when you tell her." He had a look of genuine confusion on his face, but he took my warning and stepped to the side.

"She says her name's Malie." We stood there for a few seconds before we heard the sound of glass breaking, and in no time at all I was squished in a sandwich-hug between Josie and Steve (who had been in the living room listening to the conversation) on the front porch. Will was standing there looking stunned.

"Malie! Oh, my dear, sweet Malie, how have you been? I'm so glad to see you! Come in, come in, you must be hungry!" Josie was saying very quickly through a fit of happy tears. Steve, on the other hand, was determined to get me talking about my workouts and training sessions. "So Malie, what're you pressing, huh? One-thirty, one-fifty? Come on, I can help you out with those flabby arms of yours!"

I was a little overwhelmed at the bombardment of questions, but I tried to answer them as best I could. "Yeah, I'm a little hungry, and I've been doing fine. I bench two-twenty, thank you. And that's twenty more than Donovan can press. I know, it's not that much more, but I still feel proud that I'm beating him at something. Yes, meatloaf's fine, thank you. I've always loved your meatloaf!" And that's when I remembered what I came here for.

"Oh yeah! We start at Sky High tomorrow!" That got them to shut up, but only before I was between another Josie-Steve sandwich-hug. "Ouch! Okay, okay, I get it! You missed me and you're proud of me, but stop giving me super-hugs, Commander! They hurt! You're crushing my ribs!" Steve let go of me, giving me childish look and saying a small 'oops.'

"I'm sorry but I can't stay for very long. School starts tomorrow, y'know?" They both nodded and let go of me. I looked at Josie and put on my best puppy face I could muster.

"Can I have that meatloaf, though? The smell's driving me crazy hungry!"

Lmlmlmlmlmlmlmlmlm

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><p>"Wake you're lazy ass up, Donovan! The bus gets here in an hour!" All I got in response was a muffled 'shut up.'<p>

It was the morning that the new school year started, and it was havoc in the Grant household. Firenze was running around trying to find her favorite hair products (which were in the girls' bathroom shower, by the way.), Atalanta was looking everywhere for her favorite off-the-shoulder neon green shirt that had the heart design with 'Amour' over the heart (which is hanging in her closet, if she would just look.), Elfreda was making everyone's lunches in the kitchen (the lettuce is in the bottom drawer in the refrigerator.), Lucasta was getting Melusine to help her with her hair (it wasn't holding the curls, but it would if she dried her hair at night.), and Ampelio was waiting outside in the front gardens, picking twigs out of his feathers (thank you, someone who's actually ready!). I, on the other hand, was trying to wake up Donovan.

But I should probably introduce everyone, shouldn't I? Okay, you already know me, Malie, and what I look like. I'm also the oldest of our strange family. My power is pretty useless. I can see what people want and where or how they can get it. You can say it's future-seeing, but it's not. It's what people desire that I see (speaking of which, where are my pa- ah, there they are.). My wings are sapphire blue with turquoise and sky blue tips every other feather.

Donovan is the second oldest. He has shaggy black hair with light gray wisps , making it look silver in the light, and his eyes are a gray-black color. He has a bit of an issue with authority, but when it comes to Sonic Boom, he's a whole different person. His power unique to him is changing his physical features. If he wants bright colored highlights, all he has to do is run his hands through his hair and, boom, neon green streaks. Blue eyes? One blink and they're blue. Darker skin color? Well, I don't know how he does that. In fact, I don't want to know. His wings are black with a dusting of dark grey here and there.

Atalanta is the third oldest. She has shoulder length blonde hair and lavender eyes. She's a sweet girl, but sometimes she does or says things without thinking, which gets her in trouble sometimes. Her power is that she can slow down or speed up moving objects. It comes in handy when she sees someone drop something and slows it down so we can get it before it breaks. Her wings are white at the top, where the shorter feathers are, and as they get longer, they get a bit more purple until they're an amethyst color on the longest feathers.

Lucasta is one of the middle children. She has platinum blonde hair down to her lower back and yellow-green eyes (which are slightly creepy if you have a staring contest with her). She tries to be Switzerland between fights, along with Melusine and Ampelio (sweet kids). Her power is to lighten or darken a room or a certain space. But what's creepy is that in a dark room, her eyes glow like, well, glowsticks. The color of her wings is a light yellow, almost like sunshine.

Firenze is the other middle child. Her hair is red with some yellow, orange and pink strands in there, making it look like actual fire, and her eyes are black, red and orange in a mix-swirl. She's a bit hot-headed. When she gets pissed off, the only advice I have is for you to run! She will fucking kill you! But only Melusine can calm her down (not exactly sure why, though.). Her power is that she can control and manipulate fire and heat (which comes in handy when all the hairdryers are being used. Speaking of which…). Pure fire is what her wings look like, almost the same as her hair, but more intense.

Elfreda is the third youngest. Her hair and eyes are the most normal of the family, being dark brown. She's very sweet, and she tries to be friends with everyone and for everyone to like her. And no, she's not naïve. If you try to get her into a sticky situation, she'll figure it out before you even get the second sentence of your speech. Her power is that she can create force fields. They can block anything, even a punch or an entire building falling on it. Her wings are just like that of a hawks. Like I said, she's the most normal looking of the family.

Melusine is the second youngest. Her hair is tan, brown, white and black (yes, like that one snake.) and her eyes are a light brown. She's very helpful, always helping with the chores or shopping, cleaning up a spill, teaching you a way to remember how to do a certain math problem, anything. Her power is controlling water and ice. And she's very good at ice skating (go figure.). Her wings are dark brown with black tips.

Ampelio is the youngest of the family. His hair is the color of a peach and his eyes are the color of fresh turned soil in a garden. Sweet, patient, pacifist kid. Nothing bad about him, and he stay out of fights. But when he does fight, he goes OFF! His power is to control plants, and weird thing is, he can use the plants to find something or someone. I have no idea how he does it, I just go with it. His wings are black, but they reflect green.

Phew! I finally got done introducing everyone! And in that time, everyone got ready and out the door to the street. Donovan had his black hair decked out with neon green and aqua streaks* with a black long-sleeved shirt (the sleeves had rips in them)that had a neon green, red, and yellow design in the middle with black jeans and his signature black high-top Converse ™ with neon blue laces (what can I say? The boy likes color. *shrug*). Firenze had her hair back in a low ponytail with red Volcom™ t-shirt on top of a black long-sleeved shirt like Donovan's (she borrowed one from him) with grey skinnies. Atalanta found her neon green top, and had on a black spaghetti strap under it with black skinnies that had an awesome green dragon drawn going up and around one leg and an amazing tiger going up the other (courtesy of moa). Elfreda had on a Zelda t-shirt with black jeans and black flip-flops. Lucasta had on, for some reason, an orange Aero shirt with blue jeans and red and orange sneakers. Melusine was wearing a sky blue off-the-shoulder top with a dark blue tank underneath and black skinnies. Ampelio had on a green Under Armor shirt with a black long-sleeve button-up over it (un-buttoned) and blue jeans. And, last but not least, I had on an electric blue shirt over an ocean blue long sleeve with sapphire skinnies and blue flip-flops with my hair back in a braid.

It was about five minutes after we got to the bus stop that the bus arrived. It looked like any other bus, inside and out. We all took seats in the middle, so we could stay close together. In about an hour, we had picked up everyone on the route. We were going down the highway when we went on ramp. Before we even knew what was going on, belts came from the seats and secured us to them. I freaked out a little bit, but when the bus drove off the ramp and started free-falling, everyone started screaming! That's when boosters shot out from the back of the bus and plane wings unfolded from the sides, and just like that, we were off to Sky High.

Wfwfwfwfwfwfwfwfwfwfwfwfwfwf

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><p>Once the bus touched down on Sky High's campus, the others and I <span>RAN<span> off the bus. Not because we were terrified from the flight (actually, we loved it!), but because we saw a group of people we were dying to see: Principal Powers, Coach Boomer, Professor Medulla, Nurse Spex, the Commander and Jetstream. I don't know about the others, but I knew I wanted a hug from Principal Powers. I ran over to her and caught her in a big hug. She chuckled a bit and stroked my head, hugging me back. I let go of her and took a step back, looking at her like she was my own mother.

"Malie, you've grown up so much! Look at how tall and beautiful you are! Oh, and Lucasta, you look amazing dear! Firenze, I see you look as fiery as ever!" She turned to each of us, gushing compliments and smiling the biggest smile I've ever seen on her face. I turned to Nurse Spex and gave her a big hug. She gave me a tight squeeze before holding me from her at arm's length. She took off her glasses, and I knew what she was doing. She was using her power to see if I was all right (which I was) but I let her anyway. I knew she cared for me, and she was like a grandmother to me. She gave me a few compliments and told me how much she missed me, then she went to say hello to the others. I walked over to Professor Medulla and stood right in front of him, knowing full well that he didn't like to be hugged unless he allowed me. He looked at me up and down. Most people would think that he was checking me out, but I knew better. He was just taking measurements in his head and calculating numbers in his head.

"It seems you've grown two feet, four inches and eleven centimeters and gained at least eighty-five pounds, and the color of your hair and eyes has intensified by at least two shades since I last saw you nine years, six months and seventeen days ago." He said it with such confidence that I knew he wasn't mistaken in his calculations. But I just stood there and looked at him like the dumbass I was, with a confused expression on my face. He sighed and shook his head, knowing I didn't understand a word he said. "I mean you've grown up. Now come here and give me a hug, I know it's killing you." He held his arms open, and I grinned like a fool and leapt into him, hugging him as hard as I could. After I hugged him, I went over to Coach Boomer, but he was busy talking to Donovan and Ampelio.

Since I had already said hello to everyone else, I decided to finally take a good, long look at the school and the other students. And I immediately noticed a guy with really, really long arms, a guy with flames on his arms, and Will. _'Well, this should be fun.'_ I walked over to a couple of girls that were behind Will and flame guy. One looked like she was trying to stop Will from getting in trouble, and the other was grinning like the Cheshire cat. Since the other girl was busy, I decided to ask Cheshire girl what was going on.

She laughed like she was enjoying the scene, and turned to me with a smirk. "Lash pissed off Will and Warren. So now Layla's trying to calm Will down and no one will touch Warren. My name's Magenta, by the way. Is this your first year?" I smiled at her, knowing that Melusine or Lucasta would do the same thing for Will.

"Yeah, along with my seven siblings. And I think I know someone who can help to calm Warren down." I glanced over my shoulder and saw that the teachers were coming over, along with the superheroes and my siblings. Firenze was at the front of the group, and she saw when I waved her over. She came running over and asked what I needed. I smiled at her and pointed to Warren, knowing she would understand instantly.

And she did. She smirked at me and walked up behind him, the she snaked her arms around his waist and (since she was kinda taller than most girls [we all were]) she put her chin on his shoulder, next to his ear, and murmured in a seductive voice.

"Come on, babe, calm down. You'll get detention, and we don't want that, now do we?" And you could literally see Warren tense up. When he turned around to see who it was, Firenze took three steps back, making sure that if he lunged, she could dodge him. But he didn't, he was too busy being stunned by her hair, how it looked like a river of fire cascading down her back, and her eyes, how they looked like lava flowing down the hardened magma on an island mountainside.

I saw an image form in my head, transparent in my vision right now, but I saw a hallway in the school, and I saw Firenze standing in front of a locker, putting away some books. When I looked down the hall, I saw Warren walking towards her, a cold expression on his face. He walked up right beside her and looked her in the eyes, and asked her a question. I was seeing what Warren desired at that moment.

I was about to start laughing like crazy when I felt two long (and dare I say it, strong) arms wrap around my waist and pull me towards the stretchy guy (what did Magenta call him? Lash?) . He pulled me flush to his chest, and I could feel his heart pulsing under the black fabric of his shirt.

"Well, who is this? Are you a new sidekick, or are you a new hero?" And I knew that this guy gave me the creeps. And as soon as he finished that sentence, he leaned his head down to try and kiss me! _'Oh, this is SO NOT happening! Uh-uh!'_ When he was close enough, I turned my head quickly to the side, and closed my eyes to concentrate (my power works through physical contact or if you really concentrate on what you want.) when he kissed my cheek.

An image started to form behind my eyes. I saw a man with brown hair and serious brown eyes looking at some business papers. Then a woman walked in, humming a sweet song when a small boy ran through the kitchen, laughing. The woman called to him, telling him that he better wash his hands and get back in the kitchen if he wanted to help make cookies. It was a sweet scene, like a family movie, but then it changed, moving forward in time. What I saw next was the same house, but it didn't have the comforting feel that it had just moments before. I looked around, and saw the present-day Lash sitting in a recliner talking on the phone. I automatically knew he talking to his parents that were on a business trip. They were always on business trips, and when they were home, they were only home for about a week before they left again. I knew what Lash desired.

I kept it to myself though. It would mean big trouble if I told him I knew. But I wasn't going to let him get away with restraining me. "Hey, ass-hat! Let me go! I don't want to smell like dog shit." He didn't exactly like my attitude, and he squeezed me tighter, and I let out a loud yelp.

Firenze was still behind me, and she heard me yelp and leaped into action. She started running towards Lash, but a blur went in front of her and she spun to the ground. As she was getting up, I saw that she was shaking with fury.

"Oh shit! Melusine! Melusine, get your scrawny ass down here! Firenze is gonna flip her shit!"

* * *

><p>phew. i've been writing this all day. and im not kidding. so, i'm actually kinda lazy, and i get ideas from compliments and consstructive critisism. so please tell me what you think.<p>

*I used the colors from Splat™ hair dyes.

Another thing. Their names actually have meanings. here's a little chart:

Malie (pronounced Maleah)-*Hawaiian*- Calm

Donovan-*Irish, English*-Dark

Atalanta- She's actually in Greek mythology. She was a fast-footed maiden who refused to marry anyone who could not beat her in a race. She was eventually defeated by Hippomenes, who dropped three golden apples during the race causing her to stop to pick them up.

Lucasta-*Literature*-This name was first used by the poet Richard Lovelace for a collection of poems called 'Lucasta' (1649). The poems were dedicated to Lucasta, a nickname for the woman he loved Lucy Sacheverel, who he called _lux casta_ "pure light".

Firenze-*Various*- The name of an Italian city, commonly called _Florence_ in English.

Elfreda-*English*- Elf strength

Melusine-*Mythology*-Meaning unknown. In European folklore Melusine was a water fairy who turned into a serpent from the waist down every Saturday. She made her husband, Raymond of Poitou, promise that he would never see her on that day, and when he broke his word she left him forever.

Ampelio-*Italian*- Vine

Mental Rubick's cube, i know. well, tell me what you lovely readers have to say. but for now, i'm going to bed!

~WistalaJizara279511~


	2. Crazy Train

Heyoooh! So, yea, just to make something clear, no, he does die or need a skin graft or cry like a baby about it! just sayin. and i have things that need 2 b said on the bottom. So read on, my beautiful little munchkins.

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><p>"Oh shit! Melusine! Melusine get your scrawny ass over here! Firenze is gonna flip her shit!"<p>

Unfortunately, that not only got Melusine's attention, but the whole schools. I blushed a violent rouge, but I didn't have that much time to worry.

I looked behind me (well, as far as my neck could turn, since Lash was still holding me pretty tightly.) and saw that Warren was still there. I thought of a plan, but it was just a flimsy one.

"Warren! Hug her!" Yeah, that was my plan. Have Warren hug her. But there's a point.

He looked at me like I was a complete and utter dumbass (which was probably true), but he did. He went up behind Firenze and wrapped his arms around her, pinning her arms to her sides. Yes, that's what I wanted. If Firenze can punch or wave her arms, we were all doomed.

"Good! Now, if she tries to use her power, try to at least dissipate it a little! She controls fire like you!" (I'll explain how she calmed him down. She stunned him a little *wink*, and when Warren was distracted, she dissipated the fire on his arms, which he didn't notice because he was distracted. Seeee? That's where his fire went.) He gave me a nod, but not before his eyes snapped to her face. She was trying to burn him. I could tell by the way he was trying to concentrate.

Finally, I looked back to Lash, since he was laughing like a hyena in my ear. "Will you shut the fuck up! And will you get your filthy hands off of me!" He stopped laughing, but it only went down to a chuckle.

"Now why would I do that? I may want to keep you for myself…Or I might take you away so no one can see your ugly face." (okay, THAT was low. And I was going to get him for it.) All of a sudden, he dropped me, which I was grateful for, but then I was picked up again just as suddenly. And I. was. Pissed.

Whoever had me was fast(I guess their power was speed like Atalanta. Huh.), and everything around me became a blur. I couldn't see shapes, but I could still see all the colors. When I tried to look at this persons face, they dropped me on the ground at the steps of the school, quite a ways from the fight… almost like they wanted to keep me from it. Which was not happening, just so you know.

I looked back and saw that Stretch (my new nickname for him) was wrapped all around Warren and Firenze, which was not good, because if Firenze's hands get free, he's in trouble. Big time. I started to rush towards them, but I saw that the Commander had gotten there and was prying (more like unwinding) Stretch from around the two. And what happened next was exactly what I feared.

Once he had put him down, Warren let go of Firenze, and she screamed, throwing a giant fireball at Stretch. The Commander tried to block it, but he wasn't fast enough, and the fireball landed straight against Stretch's lower ribs on his left side.

He stood in shock for a moment, maybe just a millisecond, and then he screamed like bloody murder. And that's when all hell broke loose.

* * *

><p>It took a while, but I finally convinced Principal Powers and Nurse Spex to let me skip all my classes and stay with Stretch in the infirmary. But the only reason they let me stay was because I was probably the most experienced person with burn treatment, especially burns from Firenze.<p>

Once they had left, I had gently taken off his shirt from his body, moving it as slowly as I could so as not to touch the burns. When I had finally gotten it off, I looked at the wound to see what damage had been caused, and I gasped.

Well, not because of the burn (it did look pretty bad, probably a deep partial second degree*.), but because of how he looked. He was muscular, but not like a body builder, and his skin was a soft tan and looked really smooth and flawless. His shaggy brown hair fell in his eyes a tad, but he looked gorgeous.

And that's when I went on another mental rant with myself, but I'll save that for later. I had better things to worry about, like cleaning and treating the burn so it wouldn't get infected. I got some gauze from the little cabinet in the back corner of the room and some ointment. I went back to his bed and put down the ointment and gauze on the small table next to the bed, and went over to the sink to get some cold water.

I was heading back to the bed with the water in my hands when I heard someone come into the room. I turned around to find boy standing in the doorway, looking at Stretch like he was his brother.

"How is he?" he finally asked, still only looking at Stretch, at the burn. I shook my head.

"I think it's a deep partial second degree burn, but I don't know for sure. I haven't cleaned it yet." He looked at me with confusion, then his expression turned to one of horror.

"Do you mean peel off the burned skin!" he practically shrieked it, which made my ears hurt. Then we were both startled.

"Would you two keep it down! I'm a guy in the infirmary in extreme pain with a giant burn on his side! Now shut the fuck up before I get really pissed off!"

The Cupid-guy and I both stared at Stretch with shock and embarrassment.

"Y-you're awake? But I thought you would be unconscious for hours!" The disbelief was so pronounced in my voice that I don't think the boys heard the slight twinge of worry. But I couldn't help but wonder how he had woken up so quickly. Most people are out for hours from the pain of burns the size he has. But did I have to be a pessimistic person right now? No, I didn't, but it was just in my nature.

Stretch looked up at me, like he was trying to figure me out.

"Yeah. I have been since you took off my shirt(_I blushed slightly at that.)_…Wait a sec, you're the girl that I grabbed. Why are _you_ in here?" Then he proceeded to look me up and down...and up and down again…and again. "…You know, you don't look too bad…in the chest and ass, I mean. What do you to tone your ass like that anyway? It feels nice." He wiggled his eyebrows at that remark.

'_Wait, he touched my ass?...Oooooh god, he's a dead boy walking. And the chest remark isn't going to slip my attention, either.'_ I took a deep breath through my nose and slowly exhaled it through my mouth.

"I exercise. I run, play sports, do yoga, that sort of thing. Now stay still and be quiet while I clean the burn. Moving only makes the pain worse." I turned to the kid behind me. "You stayin' or do you have to go back to class?" He shook his head and sat down in a chair near the wall. So I turned back to Stretch and went to the table with the gauze and ointment. I got a silk piece of cloth from my bag and dipped it in the water, wringing it out a little. Stretch stared at me in disbelief when I was about to move my hand to his side.

"What's _that_ supposed to clean?" I looked at him with a blank stare. _(So he doesn't get it? Then he must be more of a dumbass than I am.)_

"Would you rather it be fairly painless, or do you want me to get one of the other rags Nurse Spex has and have it hurt like hell*?" He paled at the thought, but he shook his head. "Good."

Then Cupid-guy decided to interrupt me as well.

"What are you cleaning, anyway? I don't think there's any dirt on it." _(Oh, so he thinks he's pointing out the obvious, huh? Well, I hate to tell him he's wrong.)_

I sighed. "It cleans off the charred hair from the burn. If I didn't it would itch like poison ivy, and he doesn't . Need. To. Touch. It." I growled the last part out towards Stretch, since he _was_ about to touch it. He looked at me, but then he tucked his arm under his head, looking away.

I gently touched the cool cloth to his side and I immediately felt the heat from the burn. I felt kinda sorry for him…kinda. Not much. But when I touched him, he flinched slightly, backing away from me to the wall. I sat on the edge of the bed, since that would be the only way to reach him.

"Sit still. I'm trying to be gentle, okay?" I looked at him, putting my hand on his forearm to try and calm him down. He nodded, averting his gaze from my face. I gently placed the cloth back on the raging red skin, and slowly pulled it up towards his face, collecting all the brittle black hair. When I pulled it up, I held it out to show Cupid-guy how much hair was on it from that one swipe. Then I went back to cleaning the burn, and once I was done, I got the ointment and slowly spread it on his skin.

"Can you sit up for me, please? I need to wrap it." He didn't answer, but Cupid-guy did.

"He passed out again. His pain tolerance is kinda high, but I guess that burn and the cloth is just too much for him." He came over and helped me sit him up and keep him up while I wrapped Stretch's torso. When that was done, we laid him down again so he could rest.

I turned to Cupid-guy, and gave him a bright smile. "Thanks…uh, what's your name? Sorry if I didn't ask before." He chuckled.

"My name's Speed. And what about you? Something cheesy, like Blue or Sapphire, right?"

I shook my head, laughing whole-heartedly.

"No, my name's Malie. Malie Grant." An image of Principal Powers and Nurse Spex in Powers' office came to my mind, since I needed them. "And would you mind getting Principal Powers and Nurse Spex for me? I need to tell them something."

He simply nodded and walked towards the door, but he turned around in the doorway.

"Oh, and I'm sorry if I dropped you hard on the steps. But I'm only being nice cuz you're helping Lash with that burn, but if it was something else, I'd be acting the way I normally do." And with that he turned around and walked out into the hallway.

I was completely and utterly shocked at his statement. _(Wait, it was him that dragged me to the steps?)_ When I turned around, he was asleep, since I only saw him with his eyes closed. I was still sitting on the bed, so I brushed the hair away from his eyes. "I'm sorry you had to get on my sisters 'bad' list. I never meant for anyone to get hurt."

"Then why don't you hand me my phone from my pocket since I can't get it myself?" I jumped when he spoke.

"Why? You're not exactly gonna call and have someone pick you up."

He gave me a small glare. "No, so I can call someone and tell them I'm coming home early." I stared.

"And why do you think that?"

"Cuz I'm not stupid. I wouldn't be able to stay conscious through a class, let alone for five minutes. So you're gonna say that I need to go home."

"And who's gonna be at home waiting? Definitely not your parents. I already know that."

"…How did you know that?"

"My power is that I see what people desire, and how or where they can get it. And I saw that you wanted your parents back, since they're always on trips and never spend more than a week at home now. So, tell me. Who's at home?" I raised an eyebrow to add effect to my question. But before he could answer, the door opened, and I had to drop the conversation.

* * *

><p>I was staring like a fish.<p>

My eyes were huge and my mouth was hanging wide open, waiting to catch flies. But there weren't any flies waiting to be caught in the fancy black car that had picked up Speed, Lash, and I at the bus stop after a bus was found at the school.

And right now I was looking at Stretch's house- no, not house, _**mansion**_- at the top of the looming hill. _(I thought he lived in a nice house, but __**DAMN! **__This is bigger than our mansion!)_ We were at the doorway now, and the driver opened the door for us.

I slid out first, and looked at the amazing exterior of the mansion. It was so beautiful, with neatly kept vines climbing the walls from the small gardens lining the house, and the lovely beige color of the walls with Tuscan-style tiled roof, with the dark brown shutters around the windows, and the giant doorway in front of me with the grand oak door… which a slightly stern looking woman was standing in front of, looking _(or glaring?)_ at me. I moved from the car to let Stretch and Speed out, but he was having to drag Stretch out.

He had passed out on the ride from the school from being jostled around like a rag doll. That burn was pretty bad.

But Speed got him on his back so he could carry him, and we walked towards the woman at the door. When the woman saw Stretch, her gaze softened and a small frown graced her lips.

"Master Lash? Is he all right?" She sounded like she had known him for years, like when he was a small child, but the care and worry in her voice surprised me. I didn't know what to say, but Speed saved me from that.

"He's gonna be fine, Maggie. He's got a nasty burn on his side, but that's why she's here." He jerked his head towards me when he said 'she', and Maggie gave me a curious look.

"I'm really experienced in treating burns, so that's why Speed brought me along as well. Plus, Lash said I'd have to explain to you how to treat the wound when you change the bandaging, so he _made_ me come along _(I blushed a bit when I said it)_. If that makes any sense." I had a sheepish look on my face by now, dreading that I would say something embarrassing. But Maggie just gave me a warm smile, and then she turned to Speed.

"Well, would you mind taking him to his room, since he clearly won't be waking up anytime soon. Besides, it's getting harder to get up the stairs for me than the others, so I'll be a bit behind, dearie."

* * *

><p>*If you go on wikipedia and type in 'Burn', it should bring up a page that has a burn degree chart. look at it and look at the second Second Degree burn row. It's nasty, and i got squimish looking at it. Eck.<p>

*If you think about it, it would be a little bit better than a rough cloth. And i've been burned enough times to know. And no, i know absolutely nothing about how to treat a burn like that, so i was just making it up as i went along. But its understandable, right?

And i know its short and sucky, but i have something in mind to spice it up. But please let me know what you guys think, i dont care if you completely burn me on it, just makes my writing better. And if you have any ideas, dont be shy! Love you all!

~WistalaJizara279511~


	3. Kokoro no Tamago

Hey-oh! I'm back! so while i was writing this this week, a bus caught on fire at my school. It was scary since it was my best friends bus. but they got it put out and the school didn't burn (crap .) but oh well. And i want to thank my dear friend Meghan for giving me the ideas in this chapter. You gotta love her! So anyway, enjoy!

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><p><em><strong>Recap:<strong>_

"_**Well, would you mind taking him to his room, since he clearly won't be waking up anytime soon. Besides, it's getting harder to get up the stairs for me than the others, so I'll be a bit behind, dearie."**_

* * *

><p>Speed and I were trying to contain our giggles. It was just too good not to laugh about!<p>

I should probably rewind a bit, that way I don't confuzzle everyone. But I'm gonna make it short cuz I'm about to bust a gut.

Well, me and Speed were putting Stretch in his bed (which is _HUGE,_ by the way.) and about to go out the door when I saw a small yearbook laying on his little coffee table near the middle of the room. I walked closer to see what school it was, and whoop-de-fucking-doo, it was _**my**_ elementary school. Cherry Grove Elementary. There was a page marked and, of course, I flipped to it. Guess what? It was my third grade class that was marked, Mr. Michaelis and Mr. Phantomhive's class. I remembered it very well, especially all the class pets. The hamster, Pluto, and all the goldfish, Grell, William, Elizabeth, Alois, and Claude. Fun times, fun times. I actually had a little boy say I was really pretty in that class and that he wanted to date me. Now that I think about it, it seems really cute.

But as I was looking through the pictures, one boy caught my eye. It was the one that wanted to date me. He was cute, with adorable brown hair, cute black-brown eyes, a little dimple on his left cheek when he smiled. Now I wish I would have hugged him. When I looked at his name, I stopped dead.

I could not believe my eyes. I blinked so many times I thought my eyes would stay shut.

His name was Lash Martin.

I stared at the page for a while until Speed came up behind me. He peeked over my shoulder, looking at the yearbook.

"Whassat? Oh, yeah, that's Lash's old yearbook. Huh? What's wrong?" He asked it because I had ducked my head and started shaking slightly. But I was really trying keep from bursting out laughing like a maniac.

'_Oh, the irony! I wonder if he even remembers that? Probably not, since I didn't even remember it till now.'_ I kept trying to keep the giggles in, but I turned to Speed and told him in as normal voice I could, "I was in his class. One day during recess he came up to me and said I was pretty and that he wanted to date me." That's when Speed started to giggle as well.

And that's how you found us. So we left a few minutes after realizing we weren't going to stop laughing any time soon. When we got downstairs, I ran to the door and burst out, doubling over from laughing so hard. After a bit Speed and I said goodbye and went home. I walked, since it turned out I lived pretty close. That's when I got a pretty vivid scene in my head. (_Can you guess who it is? Well, you'll find out soon enough.)_

Once I got home, I went to the bathroom and took a quick shower, sneaking out and tip-toeing down the hall. And if I had hoped on going to bed in peace, boy was I dead wrong.

"And where the hell have _you_ been?"

I groaned, knowing I would never escape his wrath, and turned to face a _very_ irritated Donovan. He was already in his 'relaxing' clothes, a pair of black sweatpants with neon yellow and orange stripes down the sides and a lime green t-shirt _(did I mention he likes color?)_, and he had changed the streaks in his hair from neon green and aqua to neon green and neon purple _(again, color!)_.

"I had to take that guy to his house since he was unconscious. His friend Speed had to help me too. . NIGHT*!" I said the last part in a rush and ran to my room so I wouldn't be interrogated any longer. When I got in my room, I closed the door and locked it and pressed my back against the door. After a few minutes, I relaxed and went to bed. I had the first dreamless sleep I've had in a long time that night.

* * *

><p><em>Bang, bang, bang, bang! (What the hell?) Bang, bang, bang! (I hope that's not Donovan screwing with the weights.)<em>

"Malie! Wake up, you lazy ass! There's someone on the phone for you! Get up!" _Bang, bang, bang! (Ah, it's just Ampelio.)_ So, I got up and unlocked my door _(I guess I forgot to unlock it last night. Oops.)_ and looked out to see an irritated, peach-haired teen.

"Who'sit?" I mumbled, knowing he wanted to scold me for oversleeping. He hates it when I do it because then it messes everyone's schedule up. But he just took the satisfaction of glaring at me.

"If I knew, I wouldn't say 'someone', now would I? Now just take the phone and see what they want. I've had them wait for at least ten minutes now." At that I started, and reached out and grabbed the phone from his hand. I put the phone up to my ear and walked back into my room.

"Hello? This is Malie."

"_Ah, Miss Malie. My name is Maggie. I believe we met yesterday when you brought the young master home?"_

"Oh, yes! Hello! I'm sorry, I'm still a bit sleepy. Is everything all right? Did something happen?"

I heard Maggie sigh through the phone, and then I heard something in the background, like someone yelling 'Stop!'

"_Yes, I'm afraid something did happen. I went to change the young masters bandaging this morning, and it seems he turned in his sleep and some of… some of the skin has peeled from the wound and is now bleeding a bit. He won't let anyone touch him, not even me. Could you possibly come by and try to bandage him up? I think that he might allow you to get close to him."_

This surprised me a bit. I didn't exactly plan to wake up on the second day of school to a medical house call. But if the burn was already peeling and bleeding, then he must have turned pretty quickly.

"Yes, of course! I'll be over as soon as I can! And could you try to keep him from moving? If he moves much more the bleeding may get worse. And tell him that if he _does_ keep moving, it will only take longer for it to heal." I was gathering all my bandages and ointments from the bathroom as I said it, throwing them all in a small duffel bag. I was also changing into my clothes as I was talking. _(Multi-tasker=me)_ I heard Maggie chuckle, like the idea of threatening Stretch was normal.

"_I will pass along the message. Thank you, Miss Malie. I shall see you in a bit. Goodbye."_

"Yes, goodbye." And with that I hung up the phone, and racing through the house to our six car garage _(Yes, we have cars as well. Some of us have hobbies on the side…very high paying hobbies.)_. I ran over to my motorcycle, started it up, and sped down the street.

I got to Stretch's house in a couple of minutes, and when I arrived, the cast-iron gates _(oh yeah, I forgot to mention those. Oh well.)_ were already open for me.

'_Well. Isn't __**that **__convenient? The golden gates already awaiting the beautiful heroine to save the day. What bullshit. I never did like those 'Damsel in distress' story plots anyways.'_

I was greeted by Maggie at the door, looking a lot less stern than she did yesterday, and she ushered me into the house. And as soon I stepped onto the threshold, I was surrounded by the (few) servants that worked in the house. They started blabbering away like caffeinated ducks, asking if he was going to be all right, if he would die from the burn, if he would have a scar, and _(the craziest question of all)_ if I only came to help because I loved him.

The last question was asked by a petite girl, probably about nine or ten years old, with fuschia hair and pink eyes… wait, now her hair and eyes were dark grey, no, now hot pink, now a brick color*.

_(What the hell is up with this chick?)_ I looked to Maggie, asking a silent question, but she answered me before I had too much time to think about it.

"This is Misty, she's one of the cleaning girls. She tends to Master Lash's bedroom and the upstairs guest rooms. She may look to be about ten, but she's actually thirteen. And, yes, her hair and eyes do change color. They change with her mood. Everyone who works in this house is a super. Now come along, the young master has exactly had a good morning so far. Hurry up, girl! We don't have all day!" Now she was pushing me along by my shoulders to the stair case. I turned around at the bottom to look at her, but she just kept pushing my shoulders.

"We aren't going to guide you, so I hope you remember your way from yesterday with master Speed. Now go!"

And with that I started walking up the stairs, going to meet the grumpiest kid on the face of the earth this morning.

* * *

><p>I knocked on the door, but there was no answer, so I just let myself in. I remembered Stretch's door since it was a dark stained oak door…the <em>only<em> dark stained door in the house, excuse me, _**mansion**_.

When I stepped into his room, I found everything just as Speed and I had left it. Except that Stretch wasn't glaring at me from under his navy blue comforter and silk sheets. I turned to face him, and I let a broad grin spread over my lips. I was _**SO**_ going to milk the facts that I found out last night. And Stretch gave me a look that said _'If you kiss me I will strangle you until your eyes pop out of your head and your lips are as blue as your hair.'_

"What the hell is with that look? And why are you here?" And the way he said it with such conviction and wariness made my smile falter a bit, but I knew the perfect retort, so I just put my smile right back on my face.

"Well, to answer your second question, Maggie called me, and to your first question, I'm just waiting to see if you'll ask me again. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to take a look at your burn since Maggie's making such a big deal out of it." I walked over to him and pulled the sheets down to his waist, exposing the burn to the cool air. He flinched at the feeling, but I put my hand on his shoulder to keep him still. The burn was bleeding, but that was normal for this kind of burn, along with blisters.

"Well, it's nothing major. It's normal for these kinds of burns to bleed and get blisters. I might as well tell Maggie and Principal Powers you need to be out of school for at least a week, so that way it has enough time to heal…What?" He was giving me this completely ridiculous look like he couldn't believe what I had said. I was tempted to laugh, but I managed to keep a straight face.

"Me? Out of school? For a week? No picking on anyone? No boring lectures? No 'Save the Citizen'?" I nodded to everything. " Whoa, this is going to be a _**boring**_ week." And now I was the one to stare.

"You actually _**like**_ to do that stuff? And exactly how long has your mind been lost?" I started acting like I was checking him over for any contagious disease, and we both started laughing. I don't know, I guess we just loved knowing we both _**hated**_ school with a fucking passion.

I looked at him, right in the eyes, and asked him if he hurt at all.

"Yeah, just my pride cuz I got burned by Toaster Boy's girlfriend. Who is she anyway? I'll teach her not to mess with a villain." I gave him a light rap on the head, which he in turn gave a childish 'ow!'.

"If you even think of picking on my sister, then I might as well say 'See you every day for the rest of your life.'" And again with the confused look. "She'll burn you every time you get near her. And I'm not kidding when I say that she will fucking kill you if you even mess with any of her friends, too."

And he just kept staring. "…Wait… She's your _**sister**_. I see no resemblance… _**at all**_." I shrugged, knowing that there was no real argument when it came to that subject. I mean, we're not _**actually**_ related by blood. Just that we grew up really close. But no reason to tell Stretch that, now is there? *wink* But I just got the ointment out and started rubbing it on the burn before something hit me.

"Wait, have you even had a shower yet?"

* * *

><p>I know, I know, not a very good cliffhanger. i'm still working on it. But yeah, on to the asterisks.<p>

*I also had to explain to the maid which took a while and then I found out he had the same third grade class as me and he had a huge crush on me and I laughed about it for a while. Then I walked home since he lives really close.

*Fuschia and pink=curious, dark grey= scared, hot pink= embarrassed, brick red=terrified

yes, yes, not my best work, but im getting there. and im thinking of a little contest. but if any of you readers can tell me what the title means and where its from, I'll let you have your own character in the story. ;) Good luck~.

~WistalaJizara279511~


	4. Bari Improv

Hey guys. Sorry I haven't been on for so long. My computer was full of viruses and junk. But my brother cleaned it all up and now its fine, so more chapters! And sorry this one is so short. But tell me what you think about it and I'll try to add some things.

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><p>"Wait,<em> have you even had a shower yet?"<em>

He gave me a weird look like I had slapped him (well, maybe I did emotionally), but he shook his head.

"No. I haven't exactly thought of that today, seeing as how my _skin_ is _peeling_ in large _chunks_ and _bleeding_."

Well, Stretch had me at that. He's only been awake for a few hours, and in pain, none the less.

"Touché. Well, are you feeling brave enough to take one by yourself, or am I going to have to get Maggie to give you a sponge bath?" He slightly paled at the last one, so I grabbed his arm and lightly tugged. "Come on. Now get your ass in the shower!" He started to get up, but then he let out a groan and lay back in the bed.

"Uh-uh. It hurts just to sit up. I'm. Not. Moving. From. This. Spot." He enunciated the last words to get his meaning across, along with a 'You will not change my mind in a million years' glare of doom. I couldn't help but laugh. He looked like a three year old throwing a tantrum! It was so _cute_!

_(Keep your cool, Malie. Don't go fan-girl for the kid-look. Stay in the game!) _"All right. Then I'll just go get Maggie for that sponge bath." I turned around to leave, but my plan worked.

"All right! I'll get up! Damn, you're like a slave driver. 'Do this, do that, don't drink this, don't eat that.' Am I going to have to carry you're books, too? Know what, don't answer that." I rolled my eyes at his sarcasm, since it was a little out of place in the situation, but I kept my mouth shut. _'If he wants to act like an ass-hat, then fine, he can act like an ass-hat. I won't stop him…unless he gets TOO sarcastic and assy, then I'm gonna hit him.'_

I watched him get up from his bed, but I noticed something on his arms. It looked so out of place, like an alien on his skin. I was about to ask him about it, but I decided to leave it alone for now. He was already stressed enough and I didn't want him to get any more. I saw that his face was scrunched up in pain, so I took off my jacket and laid it across the foot of his bed. I reached over to him, placing my hand on his back between his shoulder blades.

"Come on, I'll help you get up. Or am I being too bossy by helping?" I added a little sarcasm to the words, and my plan of taunting a small smile out of him worked. But he shook his head and, very slowly, stood up from the bed.

"Nah, I'm fine. But can you tell Maggie I'd like something to eat when I get done? I haven't exactly had much of an appetite since I got burned, literally AND hypothetically." Then he walked into his bathroom _(Huh, I didn't notice it before.)_ and shut the door behind him, but not before he turned back to face me. "Oh, and feel free to come in anytime. I know how you _love_ to see me without a shirt on." And when he saw my stunned look, he gave me a smirk.

I felt the blood rush to my cheeks, so I turned and ran out the door and down the stairs to find Maggie.

* * *

><p>I was sitting on a stool in the kitchen watching the cook run around looking for the recipe he just had for Stretch's favorite food: taco soup. I saw where he had put it in a vision, so when he came by me again, I stuck a leg out to stop him. He gave me a strange look, so when I reached for his shoulder, he stepped back. But he calmed down when I pulled the recipe from the small fold of fabric on his shoulder. He gave me a kind smile and went back to finding the ingredients. We had a calm conversation while he cooked and I watched, and he kept asking about my power, and I in turn asked about his. Apparently he could remember the smell of everything he concentrated on and used it to find where that thing was. He eventually had to do that when he couldn't find the habanero peppers. When the soup was done, he gave me a tray with two bowls of soup and a small bowl of cheese and a small container of sour cream. He laughed when I gave him a strange look.<p>

"One bowl is for master Lash and the other is for you. It's almost lunch anyway, so I figured you might be hungry as well. I think he got out of the shower a few minutes ago. You might want to hurry with that before it gets cold." He gave me a light shove towards the door, and I took the hint and left. I walked as carefully as I could up the stairs with the tray without tripping. Once I got to Stretch's door, I found it was closed.

I knocked on the door with my foot, since I couldn't balance the tray even if my life depended on it. I waited for a few seconds before Stretch opened the door to let me in. His eyes widened a bit when he saw me, and I think I saw him blush a bit.

"What the hell are you wearing? Are you trying to seduce me or something? I don't think I'm in the best shape at the moment." He gave me another smirk before he moved to the side to let me in. I rolled my eyes to avoid looking at him.

"It's called 'dressing down.' You're supposed to do it when you don't leave the house or want to relax. You should try it sometime. Anyway, I got us some food. The cook gave me a bowl, too. Now come on and eat before it gets cold." I walked over to the little coffee table he had and sat the tray down.

I saw that the yearbook was still on the table, but I couldn't exactly move it (unbalanced tray, remember?). Before I could ask for any help, a hand reached out and picked it up, moving it across the room to a small bookshelf near the back of the room. And it was stretching…_a lot_. I turned back to Stretch and, sure enough, it was _his_ arm that was reaching across the room like a piece of salt water taffy.

I guess he saw me glaring at him, since he raised an eyebrow at me. But instead of sounding like an idiot, I just shook my head and sat the tray down on the table, sitting on the small bench/couch behind me. I was so tired from work last night and fighting with Stretch today. I just wanted to sleep right then and there, I didn't care if anyone tried to bother me. I stretched my legs out and reached my arms above my head, my shirt pulling up a little. I didn't care, though. I closed my eyes for a few seconds, trying to block out all my stress.

I opened my eyes to find Lash sitting on the edge of the seat, giving me this weird look. He had his elbow on his knee and his head in his hand. It was starting to creep me out a little.

"Uuummm, why are you staring at me?" I asked tentatively. He just shook his head and kept staring at me.

"Just curious, that's all." He said it so casually that I got a little confused. _'He can't honestly be talking to me. He's never this calm around me.'_ So I decided to see what the hell he was talking about.

"Curious about what?"

"What it would be like."

"What _what_ would be like? You're no-"

Before I could even ask my next question, his lips were on mine in a sweet, gentle kiss.

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><p>Yeah, it's short, I know. but the links below are what Malie is wearing in the end. and u might have to add an extra (  ) in them. Well, I'll try to update as soon as i can. Bye!

~WistalaJizara279511~

http:/www(dot)soffe(dot)com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=11102&storeId=10051&productId=51868&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=20344&top_category=

http:/www(dot)soffe(dot)com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=11102&storeId=10051&productId=27591&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=20352&top_category=


	5. Vermilion x Good Hit

Hey guys, whats up? Sorry its been a little while. Tons of drama here. So, don't worry, im still writing. I want to thank for giving me some ideas and helping in a small matter that had me confused as hell. Seriously, i could NOT make up my mind. And on your marks, Get set, START READING!

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><p>I was startled but… I actually didn't mind it. And he was a pretty damn good kisser, too! I was in heaven. He was so gentle when he caressed my face in his hands, he never tried to go a bit further than what we were. We pulled apart for air, and I took the moment to look at him. His dark hair was falling in his face, his eyes were bright from emotion, and his lips…oh, his lips were like butterflies, so light and elegant and graceful.<p>

I guess he was looking at me, too. He smiled (I think the world stopped for a moment) and opened his mouth to say something, but then everything turned slow. I heard the shattering of glass, and then I saw Lash's face turn to one of fear and horror. His head jerked to the side, and he fell off the seat with a loud _thud_. I turned to look down at him and reach for him, but I stopped.

A pool of crimson was gathering around his head, his eyes never blinking, forever staring. And then I saw the wound, a small hole on the side of his head. I could see the pink flesh of his brain, the white edges of his skull, and the red blood seeping everywhere. I felt the tears sting in my eyes, my vision becoming blurry. I could feel my heart start to pound, my chest start to tighten. I opened my mouth to let out a sob, but it was too loud. I was screaming…

Then I choked it off as soon as I felt cool blade of the knife near the soft tissue of my neck. Whoever had the knife was slowly pulling it up, making me tilt back my head, then start to stand. As soon as I was standing, I felt a hand start to slither down my side, over my stomach, down between my legs…

Then I heard a deep, gruff voice behind me. "Malie, it's been too long. Look, I even brought the rest of your _family_." I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw everyone that I loved piled into a large, bloody heap. I started to cry even harder, and I grabbed at the hand holding the knife. I touched the skin that was exposed from the glove he was wearing and knew he _wanted_ _me_. But he grabbed my hands and held them behind my head, and I couldn't kick him, since he was behind the bench.

He started to rub me with his other hand, only moving it up to start to pull down my pants and underwear…

And then I was awake, feeling lightheaded and tired. I was shaking, taking deep gulping breaths, and I was covered in a cold sweat. _**'It was a dream. Just a dream, that's all it was. Only a dream.' **_And then I heard the gunshots again. I sat up and looked for the source of the noise. It was a TV on the other side of the room, with a couch in front of it, and on the couch was the boy from my dream.

Stretch looked absolutely fine, no gaping head wounds, no blood, nothing bad at all. I heard more gunshots, and it was from the TV. He was playing some kind of war game. _**'It must have been the game I heard that caused my nightmare.'**_ I felt so relieved. I let myself fall back, my head hitting the pillow with amazing softness. It smelled really good, like licorice and cinnamon, and something a bit darker, like being in the mountains after it rains. I turned to my side and buried my face in the pillow, trying to take in its amazing…pillow? I looked down at my legs, and they were tangled in the silk sheets of Stretch's bed.

'_**What the hell! When did he move me and put me in his bed?'**_ I looked back over and saw that he noticed I was awake. And then he gave me this sad look, but it was gone in an instant. He jerked his head towards the door slightly.

"Go take a shower. Your hair is sticking all over your face…" I think he mumbled something after that, but I didn't hear it (of course not, Malie). I knew that he didn't want to tell me that I looked horrible, but I took the hint.

"Yo, Stretch." He looked back at me after a second. "Why'd you put me on the bed?"

"Believe me, that little seat isn't exactly all that comfortable to sleep on." He turned his head back, but I think I caught a little bit of pink on his cheeks. I gave a small smile behind his back and made my way to his bathroom. That's when I noticed that my clothes were drenched in sweat around my neck and my back. And me, being my hygienic self, was _not_ going to wear them over again. So, I had four choices: A) Go around the mansion in just my bra and panties (which was NOT going to happen anytime soon), B) Call someone to bring me some clothes (but everyone's at school), C) Wear some of Stretch's clothes until I washed mine (Not. Happening), or D) get some from Maggie.

I decided to go with option D. I turned to go out of the door and I walked down the stairs. I found Misty in the main area dusting the tables and pictures scattered around. She was really quick, flitting around like a little finch that's had some coffee with an extra shot. When she finished (at least I think she was finished), she spun around to head into the kitchen, since nothing else needed to be cleaned (I think). Her hair and eyes were a pale yellow, like sunshine in summer. She must have been pretty happy about something, but when she saw me, the yellow darkened to a deep violet, and concerned was written on her face.

"M-Ms. Malie? Are you all right? Do you feel sick? Maybe you should lie down." She rushed through many more worried questions until she finally calmed down enough to let me speak.

I put on my most sincere smile and looked her straight in the eyes. "I just had a nightmare. But I'm fine. Do you know where Maggie is? I was wondering if I could take a shower, but I don't have any spare clothes. Do you think she has some?" And with that the violet lightened to a sweet lavender, and she bobbed her head up and down so much I thought she was a bobble head.

She led me through the kitchen to a little hallway near the back. "Miss Maggie tries not to, but every once in a while, she takes a nap while Master Lash doesn't need her. She always worries about him, especially with the whole 'villain' episode last year. It wears her out, keeping everything tidy and trying to keep him up in school." I looked at her, her curly lavender hair bouncing around her shoulders, the white maids dress and royal blue waist apron.

"'Villain episode'? What do you mean? Wait, are you talking about when the high school almost fell on that house last year?" When she nodded her head, I felt my stomach do a little drop. "You mean to say that Stretch had a part in that? Why is he still in school? Shouldn't he be in, like, jail or super juvie or something?" I said it a little loudly, but I didn't care.

She stopped and turned to me, the lavender turning back to violet. "Yeah, but Principal Powers thought that he deserved a second chance, but with some consequences. She held him back a year, so he's technically still a junior, and he has to help around after school for the teachers. And he occasionally has to go to the ex-super nursing home to help out, as well. Those are his bad days." She turned back down the hall and stopped at a door. "What size are you? Shirt and pants." I was confused before I remembered my nightmare. I shuddered. "I'm a medium in most shirts and a four in pants."

She nodded and slipped through the door. She came out a couple of minutes later, handing me a royal blue shirt and black pants. "Thanks." I turned and walked back down the hallway, leaving her at the door.

The warm water felt so _nice_. I slathered some of the extra Herbal Essences shampoo into my hair. Misty had found it and the conditioner in the master bath and brought it to me to use. It was Long Term Relationship*. Huh, I'd never seen this one. But it smelled _**amazing**_! It was red raspberry, violet, orchid and cherry from what I could tell. I mentally thanked Misty for bringing it to me. But there was one problem (well, for me anyway). I didn't have any body gel.

'_**Well, crudzo. I guess there's no choice.'**_ I looked on one of the shower shelves and saw _one_ container of shower gel. _One_. But instead of having a fit (which I was about to), I just grabbed the bottle and squeezed a little bit into my hand. I scrubbed it all over, taking time to massage my neck and shoulders. Taking care of people other than yourself is hard work.

Once I was done, I stepped out of the shower and started to towel myself off and wring out my hair, which needed to be dried quickly or I would have a head full of big, bouncy curls. I put on all the clothes and walked over to the door. I stuck my head out to find Stretch still on the couch, eyes glued to the TV. _**'Men.**_**'** "Hey, Stretch. Mind if I head back home? I've pretty much been here all day." He paused the game and looked back at me, a bored look in his eyes. "Go ahead. You could have left at any time. I'm not stopping you." And with that his attention turned fully to his game. I don't think he even heard me when I said goodbye. Oh well.

I didn't see Misty when I went downstairs, but a guy in a white button down shirt and black dress pants…and he was levitating near the ceiling fan, dusting it. I only knew where he was because he was humming 'Lowlife' by Theory of a Dead Man. It was funny, since that was Donovan's favorite song of all time. _**'Speaking of which, isn't school out yet?'**_

I looked at one of the clocks and saw it was three thirty-five. It just got out a few minutes ago. _**'Good.' **_ I dragged my phone out of my pocket, and right before I started dialing, it started vibrating. I looked at the caller, and it was Elfreda. I pressed a button while walking towards the front doors.

"Hey, sis. What's up? I was just about to call." I could hear all the other students in the background, racing towards the buses and home.

"_Oh my gosh, you won't believe it! Since the school had that whole 'uncontrollable freeze ray' fiasco yesterday in the science room, they had postponed the super power exam, so they did it today! Guess what? I'm a Hero! Can you believe it? I'm so excited!"_ She kept talking about how she was nervous about her class schedule and other things. I was happy for her, but if they did the exam, then the others would be sorted, too.

"Elfreda, hun, I need you to calm down for a sec. What are the others? Hero or Sidekick?"

"_Oh, yeah! Well, Donovan, Firenze, Melusine and I are all Heroes. Ampelio, Lucasta, and Atalanta are all Sidekicks. They were pretty bummed at first, Lucasta especially. But their okay with it now, just don't say anything to Lucasta about it though. Some platinum-blonde guy came up to her and said something completely stupid, and she started crying. Luckily, Will came and dragged him away."_

I was a little concerned, but I was going to have to be on the lookout for '_platinum-blonde guy'_. But my thoughts were interrupted by my sister again.

"_Oh, remember that dude Firenze was restrained by yesterday? Yeah, he came up to her in the halls today and asked her what her name is. But right before he left, he straight up said she was cute! Right to her face! How I wish I could have seen it!"_ Now this grabbed my attention. _**'Well, I guess Warren got what he wanted. Maybe a little more, if she accepts the compliment and doesn't try to kill him tomorrow.' **_

"So, what'd she do? Did she get completely pissed, or did she flirt with him, what?" I was genuinely curious, and this was a juicy bit of gossip. She seemed to be enjoying spreading family secrets.

"_I don't know! Magenta said that she just froze up, just stared at him when he was walking away. And she freaking blushed scarlet! I wonder if she has a crush on him or something? That would be so cute!"_

And I had to agree. Firenze has never had a crush on anyone, just those non-real celebrity crushes and the occasional (drunk) fling. Plus, the guys she had flings with got so drunk that they don't even remember her (which she doesn't mind.).

"You are telling me _everything_ when you get home. I will _not_ let you get away with not telling me the details."

She gave a small chuckle._ "Of course not. I wouldn't __**dare**__ do that. Well, I guess I'll see you at home. Bye, sis!"_ I heard her hang up, and I put away my phone back in my bag.

'_**Well this should be an interesting year.'**_ I put on my helmet and coasted away from the house, my bike doing a small wheelie on the road, going back home.

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><p>Okay, my only asterisk. i was actually on the website for the shampoo the night i wrote that bit, and the next day my mom went shopping and bam, she had bought me the same exact thing. It was ironic, really.<p>

So, if you like the chapter, add it to your favorites, put it on watch, whatever. Anything good is appreciated. And, yes, i was in a bit of a dark phase near the beginning. I dont like to sugar-coat many things. So now, off to write another chapter. Love you all!

~WistalaJizara279511~


	6. Take it Off

Hey, guys, what's up? Sorry it's been so long. It took ages on this chapter, but i think i did pretty well. And just a warning, it might seem a little rushed at the end, but ill fix that in the near future. So read on!

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><p>I love my job.<p>

Sometimes I hate it, sometimes I have some of the scariest moments, and sometimes I leave with some of the best memories of my life. What's my job that I love so much?

I'm a bartender and manager of the Black Vanilla Bar and Club.

Yeah. So, how does a high schooler like me get to be the manager of a place like this? Well, since I'm taller than most girls, I look about twenty-one, twenty-two. And we also have a lot of money, so we can pay the bills, buy the alcohol, and hire the hands. Plus, I can make a pretty nasty Blue Hurricane. My specialty drink, but it's so strong I only serve it two days a week. Sorry, boys.

I'm also kind of the DJ. I pick out the music we're going to play the whole night. But I won't explain it since it's so simple.

But the whole family works here. Donovan and I are the bartenders, and we do a fairly good job. The others are waiters, and it works out really well. We also have a couple of bouncers, Dwayne and Jason. Big guns, and that helps to make sure that no one gets too fired up (we also have two aluminum bats under the counter in case some shit happens.).

But back to the present. We open at about six o'clock, and its already eight, so we've only been open for about two hours. Its Wednesday, and people are antsy. I was fixing table ten their Screwdrivers when one of our regulars, Sam Lewis, came up to the bar. He's a big sweetheart, Sam. He's got fluffy (that's pretty much the only way to describe it) black hair that can't be tamed, and big, round, chocolate eyes. He's married to a woman named Madeline (I've never met her in person, but he's shown me pictures.), and has one son named Max, who's about my age. He always has a smile on his face when I see him.

But from the looks of him, he was upset. I got done with the drinks and handed them to Ampelio, and then I walked over to Sam and got out a shot glass and some Smirnoff (He doesn't like mixed drinks.). I set the glass in front of him and propped myself on my elbows, drying some wine glasses from the sink.

"What's up, Sam? You look a little down." He picked up the small glass and just swirled it around.

"Nah, I'm fine. Just a little tired, that's all." Oh, that's such a crock of lies. I could tell he was depressed, so I put away the wine glass and threw the towel over my shoulder.

"Bullshit. When you're a bartender, you know the difference between people who want to have fun with their friends, people who want to show off, and people who want to get completely shit-faced because their depressed, just by the drinks they order and by what you see. Right now, you're looking like a shit-facer. So spill. What's happened since you were here Sunday?" He looked up at me with those chocolate brown eyes in a puppy-face that Firenze would have shattered to pieces over. My part-time job at the bar: therapist. He sat down the glass and heaved a giant sigh. _**'Oh, hell. Something really bad happened.'**_

"I caught Madeline having an affair with another man. I also found out that Max has been drinking a lot when he's with all of his friends. It's torturing me, knowing I can't do _anything_ about all of this. I just want to give up on everything. I'm doing horribly at my job, my friends are worried about me, and my brother isn't even speaking to me at all. It's a hell on earth for me right now, Malie. I just feel so lost." Once he was done, he threw back the shot in one gulp and placed it back on the counter.

'_**Well, holy shit! I didn't know it was that bad! But if Max is drinking, I think we can fix that.'**_ I poured him another shot, and looked him right in the eye.

"I'm sorry, Sam. But I think there's one problem I can help you fix. How long has Max been drinking exactly?" I knew by the way he chewed his lip that he didn't really know.

"I don't know, but he said that he has a higher tolerance than all of his friends combined. Why would you want to know?"

I smirked. "Because I want to see if he can take the Wrath of the Hurricane." I saw his eyes widen a little bit, and then they were as round as saucers.

And with that, we had a plan to take Max down from his alcoholic high horse. I felt completely devious, almost like how I felt in that dream earlier.

The thought made me blush, and had to stop working on the Red Monsoon for table twenty-four to clear my head. _**'Snap out of it Malie! It was just a dream!'**_

Just then, Firenze came up to me and got me out of my daze. "Malie! I need a Cosmic Comet, a Wife-beater, and two Mojitos for table sixteen and three screwdrivers for table twelve! They're paying big bucks over there, so hurry." She said it in a 'No Nonsense' attitude. I looked over her shoulder and saw that she was right.

They looked like big company owners, all dressed up in their suits and fancy dresses, and I had to wonder why they chose our place instead of one of the fancier clubs in the city. I shrugged it off, grabbing a small bag of cotton candy and the mint leaves from one of the overhead cabinets for the Cosmic Comet and Mojitos.

I fixed the drinks and handed them to her, making record time in my opinion. I had just started making a drink for one of Melusine's tables when she came back with a worried expression on her face. _**'Oh shit!'**_

"Malie, they said they wanted to talk to the manager. Sis, they might be Feds. Be careful." I gave her a nod, and looked over to Donovan, who was tense. We all knew what would happen. Even Sam, who had been silent since our agreement, looked worried for us. This was his favorite place, almost the only happy thing he had left. I put down my things and walked out from behind the counter.

I walked over to the two tables, trying to be as calm as I could be without tripping over my feet.

"Excuse me. My name is Michelle Grace, I'm the manager here. Is there something wrong?" I tried to keep my voice from wavering. When it ever comes to Feds, we all change our names, to keep everyone safe and to keep to the books of who's hired here and owns it.

One of the men, he seemed to be the oldest one in the party, put his drink down on the table and stood up, fixing his suit before turning to me and holding out his hand. "Ms. Grace, my name is Edward Martin, and this is my wife, Margaret." He gestured to the woman beside him in a pretty red evening dress, while shaking my hand.

"It's very nice to meet you, Mr. Martin. Was there something wrong with your drinks, or may I help you with something?" I was genuinely curious as to why they wanted to speak with me.

"Would you mind if we talked somewhere more private? Perhaps in your office?" _**'Uh-oh…'**_

I nodded, turning away from the group. "Of course. Please, this way." I led them towards the back of the room, near the emergency exit, and into my office. I try to stay out of my office as much as I can. The only times I'm in here are when I'm talking privately with someone, doing the payments, or making a list for stuff to order. Other than that, I'm serving drinks and getting all the town gossip with Don.

As I led them into the room, I called back to Donovan to tell him to take my orders for a few minutes. I closed the door behind me and walked over to my desk, perching on the front of it. Mrs. Martin took a seat in one of the guest chairs (though I hardly think sitting at the very edge of the seat is 'sitting') while her husband looked around, taking in my neat desk, clean shelves, and organized papers. Then he stopped and turned to me, a 'pure business' expression plastered on his face.

"Ms. Grace, my wife and I work for Titan Industries. We find small businesses like yours and debate with the company owner if we want to support them financially. If we agree, then we give them the opportunity to renovate their structure, make some changes, and maybe even buy some new furniture. After they have done what they please, we only ask that they have a, ah, a party, you could say, as a thank you, and to show that the money was not wasted on petty things. And Ms. Grace, we have agreed that your club is the perfect candidate for our support. What do you say? Will you agree?" He just had a greedy air about him, and his wife wasn't too far off from him. I didn't really trust them, they just seemed too confident.

I was about to say something, but just at that second, I got the smallest glimmer of emotion (I can occasionally feel a persons' emotion from a very weak vision) from the wife. It wasn't much, but I caught the slightest shiver of fear. It was strange, and I felt myself get a little scared, too. But I kept my face straight, acting as if I was still considering their proposition.

I mean, if we accept, we could use the money to get the new cabinets and tear down that wall that hides the restrooms (so the shit-facers don't get lost. It's happened before, and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty.). We could also get some new tables and chairs, which were desperately needed. The furniture came with the place when we bought it, and they weren't in all that great of condition, anyway. We had meant to replace them, but we had an accident in the kitchen, and the money went towards a new grill.

But if we don't accept, we could just continue on our merry way, and keep saving money for the renovations ourselves. But I think that if we did accept, we could give that money to charities. Oh my gosh, I'm confusing myself so badly.

I looked back at the couple, and bracing myself for the next words I would speak.

"I'm sorry, but I will have to ask the staff what they think as well. Is there any way I can contact you after hours, so I can tell you our answer? I will only be able to meet you on the weekend, since I work a second job during the day." (You all can tell that that's a blatant lie, since I go to school.) Mr. Martin gave me an expressionless stare, but then he gave a kind smile, nodding.

"Yes, of course. We will be staying at our home outside of town for a few more days, but then we must leave again to make more people more offers. Here's my card, and I will put my business number and home address on the back, since you will need to sign a small contract, if you agree, that is." He took out a card and pen, writing on the back of the card, and placed it on the desk beside his wife.

I nodded. "Of course. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work." I let them leave the room before I went back out to help Donovan. We had gotten very busy while I was talking with the Martins. This was our 'rush hour' as we liked to call it. Sam was still in his seat at the bar, but he didn't look as depressed which was good, and I saw that the place was packed. I reigned in a groan, knowing we would work later than usual tonight, but anything to distract me from the previous conversation was welcome. It was all that was on my mind until I went to bed that night, but it chased me well to the morning.

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><p>Wednesday I finally got to go to school without having to leave for any reason. My schedule was all over the place, though. My first period, Hero History with Mr. Drunham, was near the back of the school building. My second period, Herbology (why does any herosidekick need to know about plants?) with Mr. Trap (a.k.a. The FlyTrap), was near the south-east of the school. My third period, Gym with Coach Boomer, was, ironically, in the gymnasium (and I was deemed a Sidekick. Thanks, Coach, real ego booster.). Fourth period is Hero-Sidekick Co-operations I with Mr. Brocks near the front of the school. And my last class is Mad Science with Professor Medulla in the western part of the building.

So today (Friday) is a bit exciting, because there's a rumor going around that some dumbass kid is going to try to fight a teacher! And there was also going to be an assembly as well, which was weird, since it's so early in the year. But, whatever. Back to my boring class of Hero History. Mr. Drunham looks like he's about fifty-five, he's completely gray haired and balding, and he's about 5'4". And his voice sounds like a machine, literally. His sidekick name was (wait for it) The Drone.

Anyway, we were going over the evolution of how heroes were called. In ancient times, they were considered and called gods. But as time went on, they started to hide their powers, blending into society. There were the occasional slip-ups, like the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. A young boy had recently gained his powers of fire, and tried to practice, but that didn't end so well. There was also the New York City blackout of 1977. A girl was practicing with her brothers to control their power, and she had the power over storms. Well, one big electrical storm rolled through that day. She had control for a short amount of time (a.k.a. 5 minutes), but then she lost it and lightning strikes went everywhere. Some of the lightning hit the power stations nearby and, bada-bing bada-boom, you've got yourself a city wide blackout.[1]

We were just about to go over another "natural disaster" case that was caused by a guy who could make food poisonous when an announcement came on for all students taking Hero-Sidekick Co-operations with Mr. Brocks to report to the gymnasium. I got up from my seat and looked around to see if anyone else was going, too. I thought I was going to go by myself, but the worst situation had to happen.

Today just happened to be Stretch's first day back since he first got burned, and he had almost every class with me, except for Mad Science. He avoided me the whole morning, even after what I did for him. What a jerk, not even saying thanks for helping him. But I ignored him as he got up from his seat and walked out the door behind me.

We were just turning around the corner to head to the gym when little Elfreda came running to me, a huge smile plastered on her face.

"Elfreda? What are you doing?" I was a little confused, but the vibes I was getting from her said she was really excited. About what, I don't know.

She started rambling away, not even pausing for breath as she tried to explain something. "Sis, you won't believe it you know how Firenze has become good friends with Magenta right well she said that they were walking to class this morning and Firenze stopped and looked really confused but then she walked up to a locker and it was-" I slapped my hand over her mouth, making her shut up and breath.

"Hun, just get to the chase. What did Magenta tell you? What did Firenze do?" I saw Stretch walk past us and keep heading for the gym, which I didn't mind. But Elfreda was practically vibrating with energy, so I took my hand away and let her speak.

"The locker was Warren's and Firenze went up to him and _**KISSED HIM!**_ Magenta said that Warren just stood there for a minute after Firenze walked off! Can you _BELIEVE_ it?" I can honestly say that my jaw dropped to the floor at this news.

"_**WHAT!**_" I screeched. My mind was going a million miles an hour, but one thing came to me first. I put my hands on Elfreda's shoulders and looked her square in the eye. "We need to start watching those two like hawks. You take Firenze, I'll take Warren. If they go out, I want to trust this guy, unlike last time. Do you understand?" She backed away from me and saluted.

"Sir, yes sir!" And with that she ran back to class. I almost turned around, but I started to see something.

_I saw me, but it was outside near the buses. '__**Weird, it looks like today.**__' And guess who walked up behind me? It was none other than Warren. But he looked different, almost…shy._

But as soon as it started, it ended. And I was seriously confused. So I just went on to the gym.

And it was kind of loud. I think everyone was wondering 'Why are we here?', 'Is Mr. Brocks hurt or something?', things along those lines.

I sat by myself in the bleachers, just waiting for this to be over. As soon as I sit down, Principal Powers walks in with another teacher who I assumed to be Mr. Brocks. She goes to the middle of the floor and looks at all of us.

"Hello, everyone. You may be wondering why you were all called in here. Well, it has to do with your class. Hero-Sidekick Co-Operations is a hard class to teach, so it's hard to find a teacher for it. But Mr. Brocks is willing to be put up to the challenge. Now, the reason I say that the class is hard to is because of the end of year test. It's not a written test, but a physical test. And throughout the years, many students have been injured in this test. In this class, you will be paired with a Hero or Sidekick, and this test makes up for most of both your grades. You and your partner will have to train and study hard to pass." I raised my hand, because, come on, she was beating around the bush.

She looked at me and nodded. "So what is it that we have to do in this test to pass?" There was a murmuring among the others in agreement. What _did_ we have to do?

"That is an excellent question, Malie, and one I am happy to answer. You and your partner must fight against a pair of teachers and still remain unscathed to pass."

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><p>Oooooohh. They have to survive in a fight with experienced heroes and sidekicks just to pass? Yikes, thats harsh, Powers, just harsh. But send me whatever feedback on it you like, kero kero kero. Oh, and i was looking for D N Angel anfics the other day, and i couldnt really find one i liked (coughNOYAOIcough), so im thinking of writing my own. What do you guys think?<p>

[1] yeah, i was thinking something along the lines of 'What if there were accidents with superpowers?' and i came up with this in return. Chicago, New York City, please dont hate me for having a good idea.

~WistalaJizara279511~


	7. Woohoo x Assassins Of Youth

Sup? So i feel very proud of myself at the moment. I wrote this chapter in...6 1/2 hours? yea. so, for those of you with a knack for detail, you may notice that the *coughonesidedcough* argument seems forced. it was. so if you'll ignore that fact and also the horrible...well, you'll find out, then you should be good. And also notice, theres not much cussing! i shocked myself with that. anyway...

Ready?

Set.

READ!

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><p>I stared at her, incredulous. <em>Is she serious? We have to fight a <em>_**teacher?**_ Everyone was quiet for about five seconds, and then the questions and statements were deafening. I couldn't even hear myself think.

I was in a haze the rest of first class. It was just so stunning, having to fight a teacher to pass a class! It was utterly ridiculous! Of all the exit tests, a fight!

I just barely noticed the bell ringing for second period, and I would have missed it if it wasn't for Stretch nudging my book as he walked by my desk. I snapped out of my little la-la land, only to remember something a bit more ridiculous: he still hasn't thanked me for helping him. And just like that, I was furious again. I glared after him as he walked out the door, a bored expression on his face. Oooo, that boy made me so MAD sometimes!

I grabbed my things together, shoving them in my bag, and hurried out the door, doomed to another class with him. But I saw something out of the corner of my eye, and I turned around to find Warren leaning against the wall, staring a hole in the floor. He looked lost in thought.

'_And I think I know which thoughts.'_ I did a small, evil smile to myself, then put on a questioning face.

"Warren? What are you doing here?" He looked up, a little startled. Guess I caught him by surprise.

"Oh, this is my next class. I just didn't want to go in yet. This class always makes me fall asleep, no matter who the teacher is." He chuckled to himself, obviously finding some hidden joke.

"Oh, all right. I thought you needed something for a minute, but I guess not. I'll see you later, though!" I walked off, giving a brief wave behind me.

In Herbology, Stretch still didn't speak to me, even though he sat right in front of me. _'Ungrateful jackass.'_ I decided then that I would confront him about it in gym.

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><p>'<em>Well, this wasn't my greatest idea…'<em> I was standing in front of Stretch, nearly under the bleachers. He was staring down at me, expecting me to speak.

"So I guess you're going to act like I didn't miss two days of school because I helped you out, huh? No apology, or a 'Thank you' even? Or am I just on the 'Chopped Liver' list because of that? Think you're too cool say 'thanks' to a sidekick?" I whispered fiercely. I saw him slightly wince at the last statement, and I knew I was on the right track. "So that's it? You don't want to be seen talking to a sidekick? Well, isn't that just courteous. Someone helps you with agonizing pain and then you completely ignore them? Wow, shows a lot of how grateful you are to someone." He slightly frowned.

"That's completely–" I cut him off. I was so mad that I was starting to cry from anger, but I closed my eyes to hold back the tears. "Obvious? True? Your style? Yeah, seems like it. But let me tell you something, not many people take too kindly to that, and I'm one of them. You're acting like a selfish, ungrateful, arrogant, spoiled rotten jackass! I'm shocked at how you can even sleep at night!" I opened my eyes, but I was still on the verge of tears, so I just ducked my head. "And exactly how many girls have you treated like this? Huh? Told them you would take them away 'so no one can see your ugly face.'? Or am I the only one that you've treated like this? You know what, I don't want to—" He quickly put his hand over my mouth, but I wasn't done. I blindly lifted my hand and put it on his arm, about to shove it away from my face, but instead of fabric and underlying muscle, I felt his strong, steady pulse and something soft running through my fingers. I opened my eyes, but my tears rolled down my face, making my vision blurry. Then his 'hand' moved, and that's when I realized it: he was kissing me. And I had my hand on his neck, fingers tangled in his hair.

I didn't have the strength to tell him off, since I'd just accomplished that. But my mind was somewhere else, enveloped in my power.

_Stretch and I were standing in his room, right in front of each other. He looked so sad and hurt, like he'd been scolded for something he didn't do. His lips were in a slight pout, making him look like a small child. Then he gently hugged me, burying his face in my hair. "I'm sorry, Mal. I didn't mean anything by it. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I just didn't want you hurt. I'm sorry." He just stood there, hugging me, saying he was sorry._

I didn't notice when he stopped kissing me, the intensity of the vision was overwhelming. When I opened my eyes again, he was looking at me with a weird look on his face. My hand was still in his hair, but I don't think he cared.

"Just shut up, okay, Mal." He gave me a small smile, then he took my hand from his hair and walked to the boys changing room. I just stood there for a few more seconds before I went to the girls changing room.

We were doing Save the Citizen today, but with the burn, Stretch couldn't join. So I ended up teaming with Speed, which I didn't mind. And we were the villains, and, surprisingly, we kept winning.

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><p>When lunch came around, I was starving! Running around for an hour and a half makes you hungry! I ran back to my clothes bag on the bleachers, grabbed it, and spun around to run back to the changing room.<p>

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><p>I was surprised when the others had found a table empty in the cafeteria. They were usually all full. But I didn't question it. That was the only thing I didn't question, though. <em>'He <em>_**kissed**__ me. And it wasn't a dream.'_ I was still in a micro size shock, so I didn't notice when Donovan kept saying my name until he poked me in the side.

I automatically jumped and flinched aside, then I turned to glare at him. "What?" He just gave me a questioning look like I was stupid or something.

"Ooooohkaaayyy, I'm guessing that you didn't notice that you forgot something important." I just continued to glare. He sighed like he was fed up with me. "You forgot your silverware, Princess Dumbass. Now go get some before I poke you again."

I reluctantly got up, sticking my tongue out at him like a child, and went back to front of the cafeteria to get my 'precious' spoon and fork. I grabbed them from their respective containers and turned back, but then someone bashed open the doors.

I quickly looked to the doors, and there stood two guys fighting. It wasn't a fist-fight, no, they were fighting with their powers. They had to be upper-classmen, judging by the way they could control their powers so easily and the concentration of it.

One of them had black hair, a green and white plaid shirt with jeans, and it looked like was throwing rocks…no, they were daggers made of stone! He was seriously out to kill! And the other guy had strawberry-blonde hair, a red polo and khakis. A rich kid. He was dodging the stone daggers, and when he found a break, he crouched down with his arms out, and his hands started sparking like crazy! He was going to electrocute the other one! These guys were insane!

They kept fighting, completely ignoring the people they were nearly hurting. Electric guy had somehow grabbed a tray and he charged Dagger guy, dodging all the daggers until he got close enough and, BAM, he hit him upside the head!

Unfortunately, Dagger guy had been preparing to throw a dagger, and when he got hit on the head, he lost his balance. He continued to throw, but his momentum was extended from the tray, and he threw it to the side of Electric guy…straight towards me.

* * *

><p>Daggers and electricity. yep. so, is she gonna dodge it, block it, or...well, bad thoughts there. so, i shall go ahead and start the next one, so you just do whatever else you like to do.<p>

Wistala


	8. Saints of Grey

'Sup, guys? Been a while, I know. And i'm sorry about it. I've had to deal with a bunch of pervs lately. But my day, no, my MONTH was just made by RedNyx and MaskedBeauty09 by reviewing _a day apart from each other_. Made me so freaking happy.

MaskedBeauty09: They will _eventually,_ but only the teachers know at the moment. No other students know. Come on, '**_Hey, I control water and have wings that I got from being kidnapped and used as a human guinea pig. So can I be friends with__ you?_**' Yeah, wouldn't go so well, would it?

RedNyx: Thank you! x3

Anyway.

Donovan: Just hurry up would you. I wanna see Malie embarrass herself stupid.

Me: *smack* Be kind.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Recap:<strong>_

_**He continued to throw, but his momentum was extended from the tray, and he threw it to the side of Electric guy…straight towards me.**_

* * *

><p>I could barely see it. It blended into the wall behind it. But obviously someone saw it, because I felt someone grab my waist and pull me to the side quickly. The dagger flew by me, just barely missing my forehead. Even when I was pulled into his (they had a firm chest and, wow, a six-pack…why do I notice that?) grasp, I still thought it was coming towards me. When I knew I wasn't going to be killed, I looked over to see a large group of teachers restraining the two boys. Principal Powers was there, and she looked furious.<p>

I couldn't quite hear anything, though. It was just a mush of sounds and gestures, like I was hearing everything underwater. Everyone looked worried though, and I got a sudden buzzing in my head, like there was a bee in it. Heh, I like bees. Someone put their face in front of mine, but it looked like when you waved your hand in front of a screen. They looked familiar, maybe it was that one guy that walked real fast. He was funny. Now it was just colors that I could see. I was really sleepy now for some reason. Oh well, I think I deserve a nap after everything that I did. Maybe the bees will go away. They were being very noisy now.

* * *

><p>I was just floating. It was nice. No one needed me, my power wasn't acting up, and I didn't have a worry in the world. Huh? Who was talking? They were saying something about a girl and home. Oh well, it probably didn't concern me anyway. I just went to that fuzzy place that was really quiet and a good place to sleep.<p>

* * *

><p>I think I was in a boat. It felt like I was moving up and down a little bit. I don't like boats that much, since I get motion-sickness on them about ninety-nine percent of the time. I needed to open my eyes, but they felt so heavy, like they had weights on them keeping them shut. Wait, what's that sound? It sounds strange…oh, it's someone's heartbeat. Was it Donovan? Or Ampelio? Nah, Ampelio can't walk straight carrying someone. Must be Donovan.<p>

I just kept my eyes shut, enjoying the rocking sensation. I liked it. And I also liked the new cologne he was wearing. It smelled kinda musky, but there was a very faint sweetness underneath it. You know what, forget what I said. I don't like it, I _love _it.

"Well, thanks for the compliment." The voice resonated through their chest, and it sounded like a rockslide, deep and loud and rolling. They laughed to, and I have to say, it sounded amazing. I couldn't pinpoint the person it sounded like. I didn't care, I was feeling sleepy again. I just kept smelling the cologne or whatever, letting it lull me to that sweet blackness again.

* * *

><p>Whispering. <em>Loud<em> whispering. That was the first thing I could register. Then I opened my eyes (with great difficulty) and looked to my left, immediately coming into focus on Ampelio's sweet brown eyes. I swallowed, feeling like my mouth was the Sahara Desert.

"Hey." I managed to croak, making him jump. I saw something in his lap, almost like his favorite set of Hurdy Gurdy miniature roses. He must have been talking to them to keep himself calm.

Remember how I said he can use plants to find someone or something? Well, he talks to them, and they talk back. And we have _all_ noticed that when he gets stressed out, he'll shut himself up in his room and just talk to all of the plants he has in there.

"Malie! You're awake, thank god! Guys, she's awake!" He yelled the last part towards the door. In a total of eight seconds, everyone was crowded around me asking if I was okay. But I just had one question…

"Why would I not be okay?" But then I realized something else: I was in my bed. _'How the hell did I get in my bed?! Wasn't I just at school?!'_ So now I _had_ to ask. "How did I get here? Weren't we just in school?" I looked to everyone, but they all looked like they didn't want to say a big secret.

Finally, Donovan just decides to take the torch and tell me. He sits on the edge of my bed, and he does nothing more than that.

"During that fight at school, one of those daggers was accidentally thrown at you, you remember that, right? Lash, the one you call Stretch, as he so politely told us, pulled you out of the way, but the dagger still cut your forehead. You passed out from shock, and we brought you home and you've been here since then." He looked me straight in the eye, like I was going to say he was crazy and try to call the pysch ward.

I just laughed at him. "_I _passed out from _shock_? Damn, you make me sound like I was complete damsel in fucking distress. Well, all I know is that I feel fine now, and I'm going to school. If you don't like it, you can kiss the darkest part of my lily white ass." I pulled my comforter up as much as I could with him sitting on it.

They all stared at me like I _was_ crazy. But now Donovan had the 'hard explanation' face on. _'Oh great. What now?'_

"Sorry to rain on your parade, sis, but you're not going to school tomorrow. That dagger cut your forehead all the way down _to your skull_. Nurse Spex had to put in _sixteen stitches_, Ally. You scared us all half to death. Even Speed looked scared when he ran you to her office." His face softened through that whole speech, until at the end, he looked worried. And what's worse, he used my nickname that he only uses when either _he's_ upset or he's telling me something bad. _**That**_ was bad. I measured his gaze, but I just nodded my head. I knew that he was right. There was no point in arguing.

"All right, the rest of the bitches get out. Queen Bitch needs her rest." He shooed everyone out with that final remark, herding them all towards the door. But before he went out, he turned back to give me a teasing glance.

"Oh yeah, and we found this in your jeans pocket. We've tried to figure it out, buuuut…" He held up a small square if folded paper, almost tauntingly, and tossed it back to me.

I gave him a look that said many things, but I picked up the paper and started unfolding it.

"What do you mean 'we tried to figure it out'? Is it some kind of riddle? You never were the best at those." I gave a quick smirk.

He gave me a glare which I promptly ignored, and closed the door behind him as I read the note….which I quickly folded back and shoved under my pillow.

'_How many days can I miss before I start to fail?_'

* * *

><p>Yeah yeah, short as hell. Suck it up, my brain isn't giving me good ideas lately. But I bet you wanna know what the note said, huh? It said, "Can't wait to see you read this chapter and feel sympathy for Malie if you figure out some things like the smart cookies you are." Yeah, like hell i'm going to tell you what it said and ruin the next chapter. But the usual goodbye: send any ideas, review, add to your alerts and favorites, yadda yadda. Bye.<p>

Wistala


	9. I Rave You x BONNY

Whats up, guys?! Back again for Round...Nine! (gah, complete brainfart right there. xD ) So, I had MaskedBeauty09 and RedNyx help me out a little with this (thanks again!) 'cause my ass hit a roadblock near the middle, but i hope everyone likes it!

P.S. Try to listen to something you think you would hear at a club while you read this. It _**really** _helps. AAaaaaannnnddd...

GO!

* * *

><p><em><strong>Recap:<strong>_

…_**..as I read the note….which I quickly folded back and shoved under my pillow.**_

'_**How many days can I miss before I start to fail?'**_

* * *

><p>{#*TIME WARP*#} ( 4 days later)<p>

So it's been about a week since I was… ehem, _excused_ from school. And I haven't really talked to anyone from school except for Will, Layla, and Magenta. They were nice enough to stop by after they were done studying for one of Medulla's tests…about _genetics_.

Yes, the 'incident' is still very much a soft spot for me and the others. But Medulla knows that, so he excused us from the test, but he made us do a different test instead…about robots. Seriously, he picks the weirdest thing he can think of to test us on.

Anyway, it's Monday, but I'm still not allowed to go back until tomorrow. Oh well, that just gives me time to shop for some clothes, groceries, and maybe rent a couple movies. But not school clothes, as you may think. Work clothes. This is when I have to be careful about what to get for the girls, since they have to look good. The boys don't care what they get, so I usually just get them a printed t-shirt and jeans. But I think I'll grab a couple 'Jokers' for the guys.

A 'Joker' is what we get as a kind of prank for each other, and I'm the BEST joker-finder. I usually get shirts or those rubber bracelets, and when I find one that is so dead on as a joker, I get it, no matter the price.

But I decided to go by Macy's first, since it's the place I usually get our clothes. I put on a headband before I walked out to the garage, and grabbed the keys to the Charger. And, being Donovan's car, its black. But I don't think that he would mind me using it for a little shopping.

I was staring at the two most beautiful Joker shirts there were. They were so amazingly dead on it wasn't even funny.

But I knew the customers would find it _**hilarious**_.

* * *

><p>{#* ANOTHER TIME WARP*#} ( 8 hours later)<p>

"EVERYONE KNOWS THE JOKER DRILL, RIGHT?! WELL, I JUST HAPPENED TO FIND THE MOST AMAZING JOKER SHIRTS FOR THE BOYS YESTERDAY! GIRLS, WHICH ONE OF YOU WANTS TO GIVE DAMEN HIS SHIRT?!" I was standing on one of the tables in the middle of the club, and I was soon bombarded with the screams of all the girls (underage AND older) that wanted to be the one to give (*coughputitonhimcough*) Damen, a.k.a. Donovan, his 'Joker' shirt.

Okay, this is the 'Joker Drill'. Whenever I find a joker shirt, I take it to work with me that night, or the next. Then, once everyone is seated, after we've been open for about an hour or so, I get out from the bar and stand on a table and make the announcement. Then I choose a girl to give Donovan, Ampelio, Dwayne, or Jason their shirt. But how it came to be that the girl had to dress the boys is a really funny story.

* * *

><p>%<strong>FLASHBACK<strong>%

It was about a year after we first opened the bar that I did the first Joker Drill for Donovan. I had found a black t-shirt that said in white letters "TALL DARK AND FUCKING SEXY AS HELL". So when I called him out to come and get his shirt from the woman I picked, he saw what it said and changed the WHOLE IDEA OF THE DRILL FOREVER.

He had stood up on a chair and given this huge smirk to everyone in the room. "ITS TRUE, I AM TALL, DARK, AND FUCKING SEXY! BUT **I CAN BE SEXIER!**" And then he took off his shirt, and you wouldn't believe how loud all the girls screamed. And then he got down and went to the lady that had his shirt and made her put it on him. And to most of the female (and a few male, from what I heard later that night) patrons, it wasn't only sexy, it was also kind of erotic to a degree. And that's how the Joker Drill we do now got started.

%**END FLASHBACK**%

* * *

><p>I scanned around the room, looking for a girl that would fit Donovan, and saw a girl near the back that I knew would hate me for this moment for the rest of her life.<p>

"GIRL IN THE BACK WITH THE PURPLE STREAKS! GET UP HERE, YOU'RE GIVING DAMEN HIS SHIRT!" She gave me this incredulous look before it turned into a glare, and she reluctantly started to make her way towards me. Once she got there, I crouched down and went along with the routine, not letting her know what was coming next. "What's your name, sweet-cheeks?!"

She gave me the most horrifying glare she could give, but it still didn't change my mind.

"It's Magenta. And who's Damen? Can't give him his shirt if I don't know who he is." I gave her a half-smile, knowing she AND Donovan were going to kill me.

"You'll know who the sexy bastard is when you see him. NOW GET OVER THERE AND GIVE HIM HIS SHIRT BEFORE ALL THESE OTHER GIRLS TRY TO RAPE HIS ASS!" And with that, I shoved the shirt into her hands and started pushing her towards the bar.

Donovan was already on top of the bar, acting like his usual self until he saw exactly who was bringing him his 'Joker'. And I have to admit, he hid his fury well. But I could practically feel Magenta's blush from behind her when she saw who he was. And once I had her close enough, Firenze and I lifted her onto the bar with him, and we stepped back to watch the two little crushies (or in this case, just Magenta) blush like volcanoes.

Once Magenta was on the bar, Donovan went up to her and said something in her ear, like he does with all the other girls that give him joker shirts, but I could tell he was saying something COMPLETELY different. And then he stepped back and, oooh there goes the shirt, here come the fangirl screams. And there goes Magenta's blush all the way down her neck. '_Damn, you can tell she's never really had a crush before, let alone even _glance_ at a guy!_'

She stood there for a few seconds before snapping out of it and stepping towards him, shoving the tank over his head. Donovan got his arms through and let the shirt fall in place before reading it.

It's a black tank that has 'BEER SECURITY GUY' written in yellow on the front.

If only you could have seen him fall off the bar from how hard he was laughing. It was amazing.

Once we made sure he didn't have a concussion and that Magenta wasn't going to bust a vein with how heavily she was blushing, I ran back to the table and screamed to the crowd.

"NOW THAT THE UGLY BASTARD HAS HIS SHIRT, HOW ABOUT WE GET TO THE SEXY PEOPLE, HUH?! WHO WANTS TO SEE ACE GET DOWN AN' DIRTY BEFORE HE GETS HIS SHIRT?! C'MON, EVERYONE TO THE DANCE FLOOR!"

Now that everyone was heading to the dance floor, I headed towards the door to get Piece Number 2 for Ampelio's Drill. Once I got close enough to the door, I yelled for Dwayne, one of the bouncers, to come over. And once he finally got away from the crowd of girls trying to practically fight their way in, he stopped in front of me, looking down at me (since he's _WAY _taller than me.).

"Go Ace hunting." I turned and walked off to go and get the….well, extra pieces we needed for the Drill. And no, I don't really have to explain myself to anyone when I say 'Go whoever hunting.' They know exactly what I mean when I say it. Anyway, I waited back in my office for about three minutes when Dwayne stepped through the door. With the world's shyest ginger behind him, dressed out of her normal color scheme of green (she was actually wearing some black jeans, accessories, and a light blue top. It actually looked good) and her hair in a messy bun.

"Layla? Well, I'm guessing Magenta dragged you here, too." She gave a small nod, still scared by Dwayne. "Don't worry, he doesn't bite unless you're a gay man. He's a bit of a masochist." I gave him a small while I said it. He knows I'm teasing. "Anyway, _I _was wondering if you wanted to help me out with something?" Small shrug. "Well, I need you to give Ampelio this shirt, _**BUT**_ you have to dance with him. And you are _**not. Allowed. To. Back. Down!**_ You have to dance with him, but he won't know it's you, so you won't have to go through awkward moments with him back at school. Hell, you can even change your name if you want! So, wanna do it?" She gave me this big, bug-eyed stare that made me think of a deer in the headlights. A few seconds later, a huge scarlet blush graced her cheeks, then she started to bite her lip, stare to the side, etc. She practically screamed 'Nervous'.

In the end, she nodded and took the shirt from me. "So, what do I have to do besides dance with him?" (F.Y.I. Never ask me this question when you don't want to know what's going to happen in the very near future. I spoil it, big time.)

"Well at first he may just brush up against you from time to time, then he'll grab your hands, then probably grind you, but he may not, I'm not too sure, then, if you dance long enough, kiss you. But then _**YOU**_ have to take his shirt off of him at some point and put this one on him. And yes, he is a _totally_ different person here then when he's at school." And then I leaned in close to her ear and whispered quietly enough to where Dwayne couldn't hear. "And a little advice, if you get close to him when you take his shirt off, at least try to sneak in a kiss. Then he'll try to find you afterwards, but I want you and Magenta long gone before that happens. I don't want the police to find out about me having minors strip a couple of my employees publicly. Then we'd have to close the place down, AND we'd all go to juvie." She gave me that deer stare again, but she just nodded. But I felt a vision coming on. Greeeaaattt.

_It was the club dance floor, and I could see Ampelio near the middle with Layla. But I think what Layla wanted was a little more than just a brush of hands right now. As I watched, she pulled off his shirt, but she didn't drop or fling it away. Instead, she kind of used it like a leash around the back of his neck, pulling him in and kissing his throat, jaw, lips, and back down. And he wasn't exactly backing off, more like…well…._

'_Damn, if I knew she wanted __**that**__ I wouldn't have said anything before. I guess you really do have to watch out for the quiet ones._' Honestly, this was getting weirder the more I thought about it. But I started shoving her out the door, out towards the dance floor and her eternal doom.

* * *

><p>Yes, its short again, but I don't care at this point. And I know that some people hate flashbacks (I am one of them), but this one was neccessary! But now my Denta is in motion and im rollin' with it. And no, im not making Layla a slut or Magenta a goody-goody. I read something like that once...honestly, i wanted to douse the person in diesel and roast marshmallows over them, it was so fucked up. But tell me what you think, tell me what you drink, if we going to drink all these bottles, we go alcohol insane. x3 sorry, it came on the radio.<p>

BYYYYEEEE!

Wistala


	10. The Waltz's

_Alas, my dear recaps have been stolen away from me this lovely new chapter. I shall miss them dearly, but they will be in my minds embrace again soon._

_Yes, I know the crazy took over for a second, but it's all good! Mrs. Sanity is back from her coffee break. So, on to something I haven't had a chance to do yet… Disclaimers._

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High, it's characters, or Waltz In The 4**__**th**__** Dimension, and I am not intending to make any money from this story. It is merely a fiction and will remain so.**_

* * *

><p>(#*TIME WARP*# 3 days)<p>

So it's been a few days since the whole Joker ordeal, and I'm surprised to say the girls were actually quite calm with it afterwards. Oh, and some good news?

Donovan and Magenta are going out on a date tonight. And Ampelio and Layla are a couple. Quick work, right? Well, not everyone's happy about it, though. Will is kinda pissed that one of his new best friends is dating his ex-girlfriend, but he's actually keeping his temper in check. And Zach is extremely jealous of Don. I mean, _extremely_ jealous. And the monster loves to be his friend.

But it wasn't all bad. After the whole dagger thing, Stretch was actually starting to open up to me a bit more. This was surprising, considering that I thought he hated me after the…._incident_ last week, before I was stitched together like a voodoo doll. So maybe things were actually going better for everyone.

Well, except for Kitty.

Kitty Trunal was Zach's younger sister and one of the few girls who actually took a liking to me right off the bat. The others were all jealous since I'm '**the gorgeous sister of the two hottest freshmen boys in the school**'. Labeling is a bitch, don't you think? But for some people, it's true. But Kitty doesn't really hear the gossip of the school too quickly, so when she finally heard about my run-ins with Stretch, she went from sweet, caring Kitty to mean, hateful, glaring Kitty.

Yeah, she has a crush on him. Along with quite a few other girls who would love to kill me and use my blood as war paint….yes, it's that bad. And it's scary as hell to be on the receiving end of this freakishly inhumane jealousy.

But let's try to forget about that and keep an eye open on my back for a crazy girl with a knife, shall we? But it's already fourth period, so the day is almost over anyways. And Mr. Brocks was going on about hypnosis and it will always take someone down if it's used in the right medium, blah blah blah, I don't care anymore. All I want to do is go home, take a nice, long bath, and forget about all this craziness.

I was starting to doze off a little bit while he was talking. And then all of a sudden, I have a huge pair of big, bulky headphones over my ears playing some really trippy sci-fi music. I looked up to see everyone watching me, including Stretch, and Mr. Brocks standing to the side with a smug grin on his face. I opened my mouth to say _something_, but I can't remember now because _**I fell unconscious.**_

* * *

><p>My head hurt and my eyes felt sore, like I'd just finished an hour long staring contest with the champion. When I picked up my head, my stitches pulling, I heard Mr. Brocks saying something.<p>

"….._can_ have side effects, just like the medicine you use for headaches, colds and the like. But when you ask questions, you _must be specific_, or else you may be answered with something completely irrelevant to what you're seeking the answer to. Ah, Miss Grant, so good of you to join us again. And you get five extra points on the next test for your….contribution to the, what is it you children call it? Oh yes, the 'T.M.I. field'." And with that, most of the class started snickering. "And Mr. Martin, five points for you also on your insight of choosing friends." Now they were all laughing, except Stretch, who was looking at me with the most confused face I have ever seen him having. Yeah, now I was curious.

I raised my hand, and Mr. Brocks gave his little 'You can talk' nod. "What exactly did we do to get extra credit?"

"My dear, you and Mr. Martin were 'volunteers' for the hypnosis usage demonstration. And I must say it was the most interesting one I've heard in all my years of teaching here." Once he finished, he gave me a sweet smile and turned back to the front of the class. "Now, for homework tonight, I want all of you to make a list of the types of ways hypnosis is used that you know of, and tomorrow we will discuss the ways that you _don't_ know of. And I want you all to have at least seven listed, or you will be helping the cafeteria ladies prepare lunch for the next week."

The bell rang as soon as he stopped talking, and everyone was already out of their seats and headed for the door. I picked up my notebook and backpack from the floor, tossing one strap over my shoulder and left to go to Mad Science.

* * *

><p>"Get your ass over here and tell me what the hell went on in there!" I had grabbed Stretch by the front of his shirt in the hall. I was starting to get <em>really<em> worried and pissed off about what went on in H-S.C. and I was willing to beat it out of someone if I saw it fit. And who's the nearest person to me? Yeah, Stretch. And he wasn't happy.

"How the hell should I know?! I'm just as curious and pissed off as you are about it! Now let me go!" He wrenched free of my vice-grip on his shirt and stormed down the hallway, heading to his next class. He was at the corner when he turned back to me. He mouthed 'Just shut up!' and continued to his class. Fine. He could be a jackass for all I care.

I turned to go to Mad Science, but I stopped. '_Wait, haven't I heard this somewhere before?'_ I shrugged. Whatever. I took a step forward and, yaaaay, I'm literally swept off my feet by none other than my new friend Speed. And let me tell you, it's not fun to suddenly be picked up and run off with at extreme speeds. It's frightening as hell and the wind screws up your hair so much there's no real point in fixing it.

Speed finally stopped in an old classroom and put me down. And being a smart cookie, he backed away from me. I wasn't happy in the least. "Why did you bring me here?" I snapped it at him, feeling my wings twitch beneath my clothes in irritation. Yes, my wings twitch when I get mad, or when I'm caught off guard. Deal with it.

He gave me a small smile. "I was wondering if you would go with me and Lash to the city tonight. We usually go by ourselves, and we just drive around until we find someplace to hang out if the mood strikes us. And I'm not asking you out on a date, I just think you're fun to hang out with and Lash needs to loosen up. So, agree or pass?"

Aaaaaand my wings twitched again. Hang out? Well, Speed's fun to hang around if you want a good laugh, and Stretch isn't that bad either. And I didn't have much homework tonight. I don't think the rest of the family had anything planned tonight, either.

"All right, what the hell. I'll go with you. Did you have someplace in mind?" I might as well try to have some fun.

"Yeah, I found this club the other night that looks pretty cool. Wear something you can dance in but still be comfortable wearing, okay?" I nodded, already thinking of a certain outfit. It involves leather, denim, and lots of skin. My usual party attire, but they don't need to know that. "Oh, and I was hoping that you wouldn't mind if we picked you up? Lash's parents are back in town, so a random girl coming over in party attire to meet their son and go out for the night…? Yeah, not the greatest of first impressions. It happened for an actual date, and…..yeah, it got a little out of hand. So what's your address?"

I smiled. '_Aww, wittle Stwetch had a date go baadd! Ha! That's awesome!'_ "I live over on Conning Avenue." I waited for his response, since it looked like he was thinking _reeeaalllyy_ hard about that bit of info.

"….Wait, are you saying that you live just two streets over from Lash?" I nodded. "….Well, holy shit, you're not just a badass pretty face, are you." Wing twitch. "Anyway, we'll be over at about six thirty. Do you have to be home at a certain time, warrior princess?"

I gave him the most threatening glare anyone would be scared of. "Better watch that tongue, Speed, it's about to be ripped out of your head. And no, I don't." And like making the finalization known to everyone, the bell rang at the last word. "Dammit, now I'm late to Medula's. Thanks, Speed." He just smiled.

"No problem. See ya!" And he zipped off. Twitch.

Woop-de-fuckin-doo.

* * *

><p>OH...MY GOD. I'm <em><strong>SO<strong>_sorry! I swear I thought I had updated in March! T~T I feel like such a horrible person now, making you guys wait for almost an entire year! I swear I didn't mean to! _  
><em>

But what will they do when they 'hang out'? Shop? Movie? Crash a party and get drunk? What do you guys think?

P.S. My senior year is about to start (next week, oh shit!), so I may not be able to update for a while.

Love you all!

Wisty

**_Don't blink._**


	11. Superhero

Hey guys! How's it been? So, before we start with the story, I have to throw out a HUGE thank you to 3 people who reviewed recently and asked me to update (not really, but that's what I interpret it as so i get motivated) and pretty much got me off my ass and writing. And I'll admit, i hadn't even thought about the story for a while. I'm getting all this graduation stuff crammed down my throat at school and i haven't been the greatest wit multitasking. And i wrote this in two days (technically one), and i had a lot of fun doing this chapter, so i hope my people that have followed me since the beginning enjoy, and all the new guys, too!

Tre!

Dos!

Uno!

Go!

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><p>"Fi. Have they left yet?" Warren whispered in my ear from my position on the couch, peering through the blinds, spying on my sister as she left to go on her 'date'. She said it was just hanging out. I call bullshit on it. It's SO a date Speed set up for them. And he promised he would text me details through the night about the 'progress'. Such good blackmail that I have to save for a better day.<p>

"Hey Ampelio, ask your flowers in the walkway garden if they've left yet!" I turned around to watch my little brother help spy, but I was (oh so lovingly) interrupted by my (amazingly hot and sexy) boyfriend before I could.

Malie had just gone to her room when Warren had arrived and asked to talk to me outside. Definitely not what I was expecting, since I was going to have a Fast and Furious movie marathon through the night. And it wasn't the kind of talk I was expecting either.

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><p>#$ FLASHBACK $#<p>

"So, what did you want to talk about?"_ I gestured for him to follow me to the garden walkways in the rear gardens behind the house. Ampelio loves his flowers, which is why the gardens are so big that they need walkways through them. He followed behind me by a couple of inches, but he was still practically by my side the whole time._

"Well, how did those notes for strategic planning help you on the test yesterday? I heard it was pretty tough."_ He had given me his old notes from that class to help me out with it, since I was struggling. He had overheard me telling Novan that I was having trouble making good strategies for the two-against-four questions on the worksheets, and gave me his to be nice. _

_I tilted my head back a little bit, sticking my chin in the air with this cloud of confidence and pride. _"I passed with flying colors, thank you very much….though I'm starting to fail math. Heh." _I looked back at him and he was giving me this 'Seriously?' kind of look. _"What?! I'm bad with all these equations!" _Warren just sighed._

"Ok, what are the ones causing you the most problems_?" I had to think about it. _"Using equations to find the curve of a line in a graph."_ He pulled me down next to him on one of the three benches in the whole garden, turning towards me._

"Well, I don't blame you about not understanding those. Ok, I'll explain as best I can. When you get in class tomorrow, if you have one of those problems, just try cutting it in half. Then do each side of it. It really helped me out, so it should work for you, too."_ ******=(A.N.) As soon as he stopped talking, I heard a car door being closed, and then a very faint trace of Speed's voice. _"Why is he here?"

_I got up to go see, but my ankle decided it was going to turn into rubber right then and twist completely sideways_. "SHIT!"_ I started falling towards one side, but before I could hit the ground, Warren had leaned forward to catch me….throwing off his balance in the process, causing him to fall with me. We hit the walkway, him cushioning my fall, and me hissing from the pain in my ankle. I looked at him, saying the only thing appropriate for the moment. _"Sorry."_ Wow, are his eyes really that dark? _

"If you want to beat the shit out of me for this, fine, but just give me ten seconds."_ With that said, he leaned his head forward, and his lips were so soft I didn't even realize he was kissing me for a second. But I can't say it was the worst kiss of my life._

_It was the best._

_When I opened my eyes(When did that happen?) after he pulled away, I couldn't help but smile. _"You realize I'm not letting you see any other girl after that, right?"_ Oh my god, that smile. It's one of those smiles that makes women of any age say 'Oh DAMN!' and lose all train of thought._

"Good, because I wasn't planning on it. Now, we really need to get some ice on that ankle."_ I sighed. Just my luck, getting a boyfriend after I have a damsel in distress moment. Which cosmic entity did I piss off for that situation?_

#$ END FLASHBACK $#

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><p>"I realize that we're a couple, but aren't you getting a little clingy?" I asked this from my new position on Warren's lap, while I still had my leg on the couch and a bag of ice on my ankle. He chuckled, hugging me against him.<p>

"Nope. I'm making sure that I'm around to get you things if you need them." I sighed.

"Well, I want to continue my plans I had for tonight, which included my fast and furious marathon." He laughed out loud, the kind of laugh that you never get tired of hearing, and gave me another quick kiss.

"What did I ever do to deserve you?"

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><p>"You know, I <em>REALLY<em> hate that we have to come here instead of the club. It would have been _SOOO_ much better, with A LOT less people under the age of thirteen, loud, thumping music, and lots of smexy guys I could dance with. But NO! We just HAD to find out that it's having renovations and will be closed for another two months, and it's the ONLY club you have connections in." I took a long sip of my water, pissed as hell and just wanting to go HOME, and not be here.

Oh, where am I? I'm in a fucking roller skating rink that's having a kids night and $1 candy and drink special. The place we were supposed to go to, the Alpha Club, is closed for renovations, and this was the only other place open that wasn't a total bore.

Stretch hadn't moved an inch since I sat down beside him a couple of minutes ago, but at my small rant, he looked at me from the corner of his eye. "If you keep complaining like this, I'll make the staff announce that you want to start a conga line on the rink. And I'm not afraid to do it, either." He gave me this evil smirk, and turned his gaze back to watching a couple of kids try to gain their balance on their skates.

I sighed. "Fine. At least Speed is having a good time, ogling all the girls over sixteen in here. Betcha he'll have a girlfriend by tomorrow." I nudged his side and nodded toward the area where Speed was, at a claw machine surrounded by girls, begging for him to get them a toy. If he didn't get one, he gave that girl a kiss on the cheek. It was ridiculous.

Stretch looked over and scoffed at his friends antics. "Yeah, but it won't happen."

The music that was playing over the speakers changed just then. It started off with just these techno sounds, but it was added to quickly.

'_OOOoooOOOooo OH! O-o-o-o-o-oh! OOOoooOOOooo OH!'_

"Oh my god… is this…" I started. "what I think it is?" Stretch ended. Seriously, music brings people together.

'_Stand up, everybody look alive_

_Say come on, come on, come on_

_We gonna get it now!'_

"IT IS! Come on, Stretch, we gotta dance to this!" It was my favorite song, and I dance to it all the time. I grabbed him by his arm, dragging him out of his seat and rolling towards the rink. I never said I couldn't skate.

'_Hands up, if you're ready for a fight_

_Say come on, come on, come on_

_We gonna win it now!'_

"Fine, but this is the only time tonight." I swear I saw the faintest of smiles on his face, but I wasn't mentioning it. I was too busy dancing along with the music.

'_I don't need you to believe in me,_

_I know how to change my destiny!_

_Sit down, 'bout to rewrite our history, rewrite our history,_

_Rewrite our history!'_

I felt like I was at home in my room, just dancing away, ignoring everything. I was alone. It's just me and the music.

'_We can change the whole world,_

_Gonna take it over,_

_Gonna start it over,_

_Don't you know that we can be!_

_A new beginnin',fightin' till we're winnin',_

_Tell me that you're in it,_

_Don't you wanna be!?_

_A Superhero!_

_A Superhero!_

_A Superhero!_

_Don't you wanna be!?_

_A Superhero!_

_A Superhero!_

_A Superhero!_

_Anybody cou-'_

The speakers went staticy for a second, then died. The claw machine turned off. The A/C stopped. The disco ball stopped turning. The lights died.

The power had gone out, and I tripped on my skates. But before I hit the polished wood floor and got a major friction burn, I felt Stretch grab me around my stomach and pull me back against him. _Again._ '_**What is with this guy and déjà vu? Its kinda getting old.'**_

"Hey, you okay?" I turned around, still in his arms since he practically refused to release me, about to answer him when a kid that wasn't able to stop slammed into us, knocking us over. Stretch hit the floor first, but he cushioned my fall, and somehow, probably only god knows how it happened, I ended up _nuzzling into his neck._ Thank god it was dark and the power hadn't turned back on yet. I'm sure he can feel the heat of my blush. "U-uh, s-sorry. I'll just, umm, sorry." I started to push myself up to get away from him, but he just held me down again. Was it just me, or does his voice sound deeper in the dark?

"Are you stupid? Stay still. We're still on the rink, so there's people around us you could step on." He was perfectly still, so I just went back to where I was, but _**NOT**_ nuzzling him. I had to put my head on his chest.

"Why are you always so critical to me?" I mumbled it, thinking that he wouldn't hear, but oh he did. "I'm not being a critic, I'm keeping you out of trouble. And you really need it, from what I've seen of your ability to be magnet for every horrible situation that can manifest around you." Okay, he doesn't realize it, but that was a really low blow. "Not my fault that it's the reason I met you." I felt him take in a sharp breath, and I just stayed quiet. _**'I shouldn't have said that.' **_"Which time are you talking about? Fourth grade, or this year?" _**'Exactly my point.'**_ "What does it matter, anyway? I always find trouble, so it'll be the same way I meet you again in ten years or more." I was ready to be done with the subject, but I heard him mutter something that sounded suspiciously close to 'Not if I can help it.', but I let it slide.

"Excuse me everyone! We're having some trouble with…Hang on…" It was one of the employees, and it sounded like they were talking to the other employees. "Well, it seems that a villain has attacked town…" Insert the crowd's collective gasp and murmurings here. "And they have used some sort of device that has caused everything that uses electricity to stop working, which means the power plant, flashlights, emergency lights, cars, cell phones, and cameras. It hasn't affected radios, though, so we'll turn up the volume if everyone wants to hear the news cast going on now about the situation." About a dozen people said 'Yes!' and 'Yes, please!'.

Stretch sighed beneath me. "Well, looks like we'll be here for a while." I made a face, though he couldn't see it. "What do you mean?" "Well, if the device the villain used has knocked out everything except radios, they've planted the device somewhere and it's keeping the power off. So, until the heroes find it and turn it off, we'll be stuck here until morning, when we can see. Even then, it's still at least an hour's walk to our houses, since its thirty minutes by car. _And _we won't be able to go to school, either. So you might as well get comfortable, Mal. It'll be a long night." He moved a bit, which made me end up in a comfortable spot between his arm and side, with my head on his shoulder.

I don't know how long we were like that, but I started to get drowsy after a while. And I think Stretch started rubbing my arm and humming some kind of song, but you know how it is when you're half asleep. You can't tell what's reality from a dream, no matter how hard you try.

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><p>"Come on, Mal. You gotta wake up. The power's back on, we gotta go home." I <em>think<em> it was Lash that was talking, but I was so tired I couldn't really be sure.

I must have said something, but like I said, I was too tired to think straight.

"Believe me, I wish you could. But I have to take you back. Come on, just hold onto me and I'll carry you."

I think I said something again.

"I won't. Not for a while."

I indistinctly spoke again.

"...Do you want me to now?"

I knew what I said this time. "Mhmm. I'sh nice."

"Sorry, but I can't. I promise I will next time though."

I can't tell if that was a pout or a smile I just did. " 'Oo bedder."

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><p>So, what'd you guys think? Awesome? Completely sucked? So bad it deserves to rot in Tartarus? I'm just saying, I need feedback from you guys. It gets me motivated.<p>

Anyway, I had written this chapter a different way before, and I was halfway done and thought 'This is shit.' and deleted it, started over, and its ten times better.

Funny thing about this chapter, though. I wrote a scene based on an experience I had in sophomore year, but I tweaked it to fit the chapter. See, my Biology I class had gone to the library for I can't remember what now. Well, the library had a couple of old couches, and a couple of my friends and I sat on a long ottoman or something. I was on the far right edge. There was a small love seat next to it, and a couple of guys had taken it. Weeeellllll, the ottoman thing is **_REALLY_** soft, so when the class was leaving and my friends and I got up...well, I was thrown off balance, fell sideways, and my face ended up on one of the guys on the love seat's lap...Yeah. My friends thought it was hilarious, and I almost died of embarrassment. A Day in the Life of Wisty.

A.N.: I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO DO THIS SO I JUST SAID BULLSHIT. If you know how to actually do that, message me or leave it in a review so I can make Warren sound smart and impressive.

BTW, if you want to listen to the song I used for the chapter title and roller skating rink scene, it's called** Superhero** by Simon Curtis.

Anyway, I love you all, a slightly late Happy Halloween, an early Happy Thanksgiving, and an even earlier MERRY FREAKIN CHRISTMAS,

All the best,

Wisty


	12. A Star-crossed Wasteland

Two chapters in a week? Yes, I do believe so. What's up everybody, Wisty is back. So I got really excited from the last chapter, and i started this one, then had the best idea of EPIC proportions, wrote a scene for a chapter thats still far away, and finished this one. So yeah, I've been extremely happy. And my drivers test is tomorrow, so woopiedoo. total sarcasm for those of you who cant understand it.

Anyway, If any of you understood what happened at the end of the chapter, and can tell me what she says, you get a cookie.

So READ ON, MUNCHKINS!

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><p>My head was vibrating. The right side of my forehead was cold. I think I'm drooling. '<em><strong>Wait, what?<strong>_' I cracked open my eyes, and it was really dark, but there were floating lights going by. Oh, wait, those are street lamps. My head was vibrating and cold because it was against the window of Speed's car.

Wait, wasn't the car supposed to be useless without any electricity?

I sat up, and grabbed the jacket that had been draped over me to keep it from slipping.

"Well, well. Sleeping beauty awakes. How was the nap, sunshine?" Great. Smart comments right when I wake up. "You better watch your tongue, man. She'll rip it out and feed it to some stray dogs. Though, the silence _**would**_ be nice for a change." I smiled despite myself. _**'That's my Lash, always as sarcastic as me.'**_ I frowned. _**'Wait, **_**my **_**Lash? I've **_**NEVER**_** liked him! He's always su-'**_

_Finally, I looked back to Lash, since he was laughing like a hyena in my ear. "Will you shut the fuck up! And will you get your filthy hands off of me!" He stopped laughing, but it only went down to a chuckle._

"_Now why would I do that? I may want to keep you for myself…" __**'No way…'**_

"…_You know, you don't look too bad…" __**'No…'**_

"_Me? Out of school? For a week? No picking on anyone? No boring lectures? No 'Save the Citizen'?" I nodded to everything. " Whoa, this is going to be a boring week." And now I was the one to stare._

"_You actually like to do that stuff? And exactly how long has your mind been lost?" I started acting like I was checking him over for any contagious disease, and we both started laughing. I don't know, I guess we just loved knowing we both hated school with a fucking passion. __**'Oh god, I don't…'**_

"_Uh-uh. It hurts just to sit up. I'm. Not. Moving. From. This. Spot." He enunciated the last words to get his meaning across, along with a 'You will not change my mind in a million years' glare of doom. I couldn't help but laugh. He looked like a three year old throwing a tantrum! It was so cute! __**'…Well, maybe'**_

_It smelled really good, like licorice and cinnamon, and something a bit darker, like being in the mountains after it rains._ _**'Aw, man…' **__"Yo, Stretch." He looked back at me after a second. "Why'd you put me on the bed?"_

"_Believe me, that little seat isn't exactly all that comfortable to sleep on." He turned his head back, but I think I caught a little bit of pink on his cheeks.__** 'Dammit…'**_

_I could barely see it. It blended into the wall behind it. But obviously someone saw it, because I felt someone grab my waist and pull me to the side quickly. The dagger flew by me, just barely missing my forehead. Even when I was pulled into his (they had a firm chest and, wow, a six-pack…why do I notice that?) grasp, I still thought it was coming towards me. __**'Shit…'**_

But then I remembered the one thing that I hated to remember, always wishing that I could forget it ever happened.

"_So I guess you're going to act like I didn't miss two days of school because I helped you out, huh? No apology or a 'Thank you' even? Or am I just on the 'Chopped Liver' list because of that? Think you're too cool to say 'thanks' to a sidekick?" I whispered fiercely. I saw him slightly wince at the last statement, and I knew I was on the right track. "So that's it? You don't want to be seen talking to a sidekick? Well, isn't that just courteous. Someone helps you with agonizing pain and then you completely ignore them? Wow, shows a lot of how grateful you are to someone." He slightly frowned._

"_That's completely–" I cut him off. I was so mad that I was starting to cry from anger, but I closed my eyes to hold back the tears. "Obvious? True? Your style? Yeah, seems like it. But let me tell you something, not many people take too kindly to that, and I'm one of them. You're acting like a selfish, ungrateful, arrogant, spoiled rotten jackass! I'm shocked at how you can even sleep at night!" I opened my eyes, but I was still on the verge of tears, so I just ducked my head. "And exactly how many girls have you treated like this? Huh? Told them you would take them away 'so no one can see your ugly face.'? Or am I the only one that you've treated like this? You know what, I don't want to—" He quickly put his hand over my mouth, but I wasn't done. I blindly lifted my hand and put it on his arm, about to shove it away from my face, but instead of fabric and underlying muscle, I felt his strong, steady pulse and something soft running through my fingers. I opened my eyes, but my tears rolled down my face, making my vision blurry. Then his 'hand' moved, and that's when I realized it: he was kissing me. And I had my hand on his neck, fingers tangled in his hair._

_I didn't have the strength to tell him off, since I'd just accomplished that. But my mind was somewhere else, enveloped in my power._

**Stretch and I were standing in his room, right in front of each other. He looked so sad and hurt, like he'd been scolded for something he didn't do. His lips were in a slight pout, making him look like a small child. Then he gently hugged me, burying his face in my hair. "I'm sorry, Mal. I didn't mean anything by it. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I just didn't want you hurt. I'm sorry." He just stood there, hugging me, saying he was sorry.**

_I didn't notice when he stopped kissing me, the intensity of the vision was overwhelming. When I opened my eyes again, he was looking at me with a weird look on his face. My hand was still in his hair, but I don't think he cared._

"_Just shut up, okay, Mal." He gave me a small smile… __**'Fine. I'll admit it to myself. I may have a small crush on him, but we can never be together. He wouldn't want someone that can hardly trust anyone.'**_

"-kay? HellOOOooo? Earth to Mal. Your mind has left the solar system, time to come back." I looked up, finding that Lash had twisted around in his seat to look at me. "Yeah, sorry. I was just, uh, thinking about something."

'_The dust is clearing,_

_The desert is cold._

_The skies are quiet,_

_And I can't make a sound._

_And I just wait for you.'_

Lash turned back to the front, reaching for the volume on the radio. "You don't mind if I turn it up, do you, man?" Speed just laughed at him. "Pff, like I can stop you when it comes to this station. Go ahead." _**'What the hell?' **_

'_I'm calling for a savior_

_To show me where to start._

_And all who still remain_

_Are whispering in the dark._

_And we just wait for a sign.'_

"Malie, for future reference, the bullheaded guy next to me loves this station, so whenever it's on, it never gets turned off until it's the rare song that he hates." Speed gave me a sly grin in the rearview mirror. "Oh shut up, it's not as bad as the crap you listen to. It always makes me question where the good artists have gone." Lash was getting defensive about it, and it made me wonder if there was something going on that I was missing.

'_So this is my Once Upon A Time!_

_So this is my star-crossed wasteland!'_

"Yeah, yeah. Don't get your panties in a bunch, I'm letting you listen to it, so calm down." Speed laughed at his old friend, knowing something that I didn't.

'_The wolves are ascending,_

_The vultures are near._

_And I'm still here waiting_

_For you to reappear._

_And we just wait for A SIGN!'_

"Huh?" Something was vibrating in the pocket of the jacket I had draped across my lap when I had woken up. "I think someone's phone is going off." Lash looked back, and without giving me any warning _**whatsoever,**_ he reached for the pocket that was against _**my thigh**_, and got the phone. _**'I should smack him for that.'**_

'_So this is my Once Upon A Time!_

_So this is my star-crossed wasteland!'_

"It's Daniel. He says there's a cross party going on just outside of town in the south woods." He looked towards Speed. "Wanna go?" Speed grinned like an idiot. "Hell yes! You know that if Daniel knows about it and he's _there_, it's a damn good party. What about you, Warrior Princess? Feel up to it?"

"Well I would if I knew what a cross party was." They both laughed, which had me curious. Lash decided to take charge and explain it to lil' ol' clueless me. "A cross party is pretty much what it's called. It's a mix between a good old fashioned college party, a rave, and a DJ concert. It's still crazy, but a _little_ tame. Do you understand?"

'_And you'll never know _

_What it is you've done to me!_

_And you'll never know_

_What it is you've done to me! _

_And we all wait for a sign!_

_And we just wait for a sign…'_

"Sure. If it makes up for the night I was _**supposed**_ to have, then I'll go." I shrugged, trying to hide my nerves from what I just realized not too long ago.

"_What's up, everybody?! Your favorite afternoon hosts' here, the lovely miss Jackie Antera, and me, the devilishly good-looking Marcus Tronten. It is that time of night, where you send us a text telling us about something that has happened to you or someone you know, and we try to find a song to match that situation or help them feel better about it. __**Now, we have already had people send us some texts and we actually found a really touching one, sent in by CupidsEvilMinion. I love the name, by the way. 'Hey Marcus and Jackie, a friend that I have has just recently admitted to herself that she has a crush on one of my other friends (and I think he has a crush on her, too.), but she's convinced herself that it's never going to happen because they're so different, and she just enjoys being around him, and she never flirts anymore! She's always been really straightforward with everything, but she's taking the scenic route around this! Think you can find something that will convince her that they CAN be together?' **__ Oh, man! You sure do have your hands full, don't you!? But I've been going through our music stash, and I've found something that might make your friend wake up and smell the roses! Here's We'll Be Together by Ashley Tisdale!" _

"I love these guys. They are absolutely hilarious, especially around Valentine's day. Aw man, do you remember what they did last year, Lash? You know, the five pounds of chocolate covered strawberries that they gave away?" Lash started laughing, "Oh man, I was so jealous of the girl who got them, too! They were from the best candy store in North Ridge!" I smiled at how relaxed they were being.

'_I'm not alone,_

_Even when we're apart_

_I feel you, in the air._

_Yeah.'_

They both started throwing some of the worst 'Your Mom' jokes I had ever heard back and forth, never breaking stride with the timing. They even dragged me into it eventually, and I figured out that mine were just as bad as theirs.

'_I'm not afraid,_

_I know what you're thinking._

_I can hear you,_

_Everywhere.'_

We bantered back and forth about bands, actors and actresses, movies, even the occasional book. It was really peaceful. I felt like I was with my family.

'_Some people say it'll never happen,_

_And we're just wastin' time._

_But good things come when you least expect them,_

_So I don't really mind.'_

We headed to the party, which was a few minutes away, still.

'_We'll be together,_

_Come whatever._

_Not just staring at the stars._

_Just remember,_

_That no one can tell us who we are._

_We'll be together,_

_So don't ever stop listening to your heart._

'_Cause I can't turn mine off. (Who~oa)'_

I started getting goosebumps on my skin, so I took Lash's jacket and put it on. _**'Speaking of jackets, where did I put mine? I swear I had it at the beginning of the school year.'**_

'_I can't pretend_

_This is a rehearsal for the real thing._

_Because it's not._

_And I know we're young,_

_But I can't help feeling what I'm feeling,_

_And I won't stop._

_Some things are meant to be and they'll be there,_

_When the time is right._

_Even though I know that,_

_I swear I wish it was tonight!'_

Lash's phone started buzzing again, interrupting the playful mood we had been enjoying. He turned it on, and as he read the message, his expression started to darken. "Dammit. We can't go to the party. Turn around, Speed, we have to take her home."

'_We'll be together,_

_Come whatever._

_Not just staring at the stars._

_Just remember,_

_That no one can tell us who we are._

_We'll be together,_

_So don't ever stop listening to your heart._

'_Cause I can't turn mine off._

_(Oooo, yeah!)_

_I like what's happening to me._

_(Oooo, yeah!)_

_Nothing else to say. Oh!_

_(Oooo, yeah!)_

_Somebody finally got to me,_

_And carried me away.'_

Speed glanced away from the road for a second, giving Lash a confused look. "Why do we need to head back now? The party is _literally_ just around the corner!" Lash continued to glare at the small object in his hands, almost seeming to grow angrier by the second.

'_We'll be together,_

_Come whatever._

_Not just staring at the stars._

_Just remember,_

_That no one can tell us who we are._

_We'll be together,_

_So don't ever stop listening to your heart._

'_Cause I can't turn mine off._

_Whooooo~oooaaaa._

_Yeeeeaaaaaahhh._

_Whoa, yeah._

_I'm not alone,_

_Even when we're apart,_

_I feel yoooo~ooouu.'_

"Because the Bitch came back." Okay, Speed just made the made disgusting choking noise I have EVER heard. "Bitch came back!? Aw man, I thought she was a goner!" Lash huffed out an angry sigh.

"Nope. Bitch came back. She just couldn't stay away, could she?" I leaned forward to get my head between the seats, because I was curious and started to get a big old helping of dread along with it. "Sooo, who's 'the Bitch?'"

Speed only looked at me, gave me this sad puppy dog face, turned away and fidgeted. Lash just looked away from his cell phone for the first time in five minutes, and stared into my eyes with the most intense anger and hatred that he probably had.

"Brianna Charlotte Neri."

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><p>If any of you understand how the songs relate, you get another cookie. Understand something that is hidden? You get a pie of your choice.<p>

But when the radio hosts are talking, the italics only part is Marcus talking, and the bold italics are Jackie talking. So no one gets confused.

Bye, and all the best,

Wisty


	13. Swing x Bring the Bass

Hey guys! Sorry for the wait, writer's block is karma's bitchy sister. Also the fact of friends being sent to jail, other friends being blamed for said friends being sent there, and me being the one who hates when my friends fight with each other, I got stressed the hell out! Then my best friend decided that she wanted to see if she could go out with a guy who just wanted her as a fuck buddy (which she didn't), so yeah, I've been VERY distracted. Anyway, my problems don't matter to you guys, no one ever reads these, so okay, just go and read the story and find out just who the fucking hell Briana is.

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><p>I can't say I'm very focused right now.<p>

Lash practically _**forced**_ Speed to, well, speed down the roads to get back to my house. And when we had gotten there, he told me to stay inside the rest of the night. And when I had asked him what was wrong, he got really defensive.

And that was nine hours ago. I'm STILL confused.

But it was another school day, and the family and I were on the bus headed to school.

"Mal!" Donovan was sitting in the seat behind me, and he was currently leaning forward to look over it. "You hear? There's supposed to be a new girl arriving at the school today." I turned around to look at him, but then the bus went over the edge of the bridge and the seatbelts came out, so I was forced to look ahead. It seems like none of my questions were getting answered today. And it was _**really**_ starting to irritate me.

We eventually ended up at the school, and everyone was in a rush to get off, so I _**STILL**_ couldn't talk to Don. '_**Whatever. I'll just find Lash and see if he's calmed down.'**_

But apparently I didn't need to, since he came up beside me and, keeping perfect stride, wrapped one of his arms around my shoulders, tucking me against his side. We just kept walking towards the school, past everyone and the buses, like it was of the upmost importance to get in the building five minutes ago. Speed zipped up next to us, standing on the other side of me that didn't have Lash attached. But he looked…resolutely unwavering. It was a big change from his usual humorous, teasing persona, and it threw me for a loop. _**'Just what is going on?'**_

Lash took that moment to duck his head, his mouth just inches from my ear. "You're staying near me and Speed today. We aren't going to leave your side until schools out and you're on the bus headed home. And no 'But's about it." He pulled his head away again, glaring at anyone who dared to make eye contact with him. It was starting to scare me.

"Lash, _what_ is going on? Where are we going?" He didn't even glance at me. He took me straight to our first period, and sitting us in the back corner. And whenever I tried to ask him a question again, he just ignored me! Fine. Two can play at this game.

I watched the time slowly tick by on the clock hanging above Mr. Drunham's desk, waiting until the bell finally rang. It did, and everyone started coming into the room, taking their seats and waiting for class to start. I was tired from sitting still with nothing to do, so I put my head on my arms and started to doze.

Thank god I never saw her walk in.

I heard everyone go quiet, but what I thought was weird is how I can practically hear Lash _growling_ beside me. Then I heard this _'click, click, click'_ sound coming towards us, and that's when my life went to hell in a handbasket.

"Oh, Lash, baby, I _**missed**_ you! I tried to call, but that hag of a maid always said you weren't around whenever I did. You really _**should**_ get rid of her. She's so _**rude**_!"

'_**Oh. My god. Did she **__**really**__** just call Maggie a hag?! And what the bloody HELL is up with her voice? Does the air around her turn to helium on contact? Dear geezes.'**_ I never looked up, because I knew that if I did, I would probably end up questioning the world for the rest of the week…and gag, too.

"Go away, Brianna. I'm not in the mood to deal with you." Whoa. Lash, getting cross? Now this I _**have**_ to see.

I decided to act like I had just woken up, so I just moved my shoulders at first, then I stretched out my arms, and I picked up my head and sat up, pretending to yawn. Then I opened my eyes and looked over at her, and my verbal filter went on lockdown for about five seconds.

"Who brought a clown to school with them?" Seriously, she looked like a clown, to me anyway. Shoulder length strawberry blonde hair, almond shaped dark hazel eyes, heart shaped face. Makeup consisting of an entire store aisle's worth of foundation, heavy grey eyeshadow, a layer of blush, and bright _fucking_ red lipstick. Her shirt wasn't even a _shirt_. It was pretty much a bustier, black with dark grey designs, and a zipper on the front from top to bottom, completed with too fucking tight skinny jeans and black hooker heels. I wanted to punch her already.

Her head snapped around to look at me, and I swear I heard a vein pop in her itty bitty head from the force. "What the fuck did you just say?!" I couldn't care less about her so I glanced at Lash, who looked like he was a piece of string pulled taut, about ready to snap. _**'I really shouldn't put any more pressure on him with this. Maybe if I pull some bullshit, she'll believe it and go away?'**_ I slowly blinked at her, face slack, then squeezed my eyes shut and yawned. I looked back at her once I was done, blinking slowly again.

"Mmm, sorry, what? I don't know what I say after I wake up for about five minutes, so if I said something mean, I'm really sorry. It just happens." She gave me this once over kind of look, then seemed to deem my story as the truth.

"All right, I'll forgive you for that since you _were_ asleep and I don't know you. But my name's Brianna, I just got here." She held out her bony-as-a-skeleton hand to me, and I took it in my own, and _oh my fucking god I can feel every bone in her fingers, this is creepy as hell!_ "Malie. I only heard you were coming this morning for about three seconds before I passed out. Sorry about that." I smiled at her, making her think I wanted to be friends. _**'Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.' **_Why do I think she's an enemy? Three reasons: One, she called Maggie a hag. Two, she called Lash '_baby_'. And three, I just don't fucking like her.

Mr. Drunham walked in at that moment, and began the class after introducing the bitch. I looked over at Lash again, and he had a white-knuckled vice grip on his knee. I looked back to the board, ignoring where _it_ sat at the front of the row.

'_**This is going to be a LONG day.'**_

* * *

><p>And I was right. Turns out <em>it<em> had Gym with us in third period. And when the other hero school sent over _its_ paperwork, _it_ was deemed a Heroine. And much to everyone's dismay, Coach Boomer decided that _it_ was going to join in today's session of Save the Citizen…as a villain…while Speed and I are Heroes.

Fan-_fucking-_tastic. Way to go, Boomer.

"All right, Speed and Malie, you're the Heroes. Stop the Villains, save the citizen before time runs out. Briana and Hot Head are the Villains. GO!"

Speed zipped away, going after Warren, hitting him every time he ran by. We knew the oxygen vacuum wouldn't work anymore, since he knew how to stop it.

The only thing I was worried about was _IT_. The teachers never said what her power was, _it_ never said anything about _its_ power, and the boys refused to tell me. So yeah, I'm screwed in the knowledge department.

Briana crouched down about an inch, so I crouched as well. She just kept staring me down, like she was assessing me or something. And then I felt it.

My entire body locked up. I couldn't move anything, and that's what terrified me.

I was _vulnerable_.

_{Poor Malie. Scared of a little power?}_

'_**What the hell was that!?'**_

_{So I'm guessing by all the gossip I've heard today that you're making moves on _MY_ boyfriend?}_

'_**What the hell…. Is that Briana?'**_

Briana hadn't moved since my body went traitor on me, except that she was now smirking. I could hear everything going on around me. The whir of the blades and spikes spinning in the pit, the other students cheering, and then there was someone yelling…who is it? Wasn't I fighting with him? Or was it against him? He did…something. I can't remember.

_{All right, so you'll learn you're lesson about trying to take what's mine, I want you to turn and face Lash. Then, I want you to flip him off for me, and then walk into the pit. Now be good girl and get started, okay?}_

'_**Wha- Oh my god, you FUCKING BITCH! YOU'RE INSANE! THIS GOES AGAINST THE RULES!'**_

I stood and turned around, searching for this 'Lash' guy in the bleachers. I found him in the second to highest row, glaring at my Lady like she was the devil incarnate, and then he looked at me. His eyes. They were so familiar. Where had I seen him before? Didn't I always call him something? And he's sitting on those bleachers that make me think of something private. What _was_ it? Why do I want to run to him, hold on, and never let go?

'_**What? No, I don't want to do that! That's Briana talking, it's all Briana! Let me go, you bitch! Somebody get her to let me go!'**_

My hand raised, middle finger standing to do the lone salute. Someone yelled at me, something about this object called 'detention.' What is it? I don't know anymore.

'_**Oh my god, let me go! Stop this! Somebody stop her, please! Stop this!'**_

My hand lowered, and I turned again. The boy called to someone, maybe his friend. Or me? What's my name, again? Malady? Yes, I think that was it. Malady, a disease. That was my name.

'_**No, it's not! My name is Malie! Stretch, please, stop her! Help me!'**_

I started walking forward, calmly, hearing everything around me, but I couldn't understand it. I knew the words, but I didn't know what they meant. 'Stop!'. What did that mean? Did it mean to keep going? Yeah, that was it. Everyone wanted me to keep going. I can do that. It was really easy.

'_**PLEASE! SOMEBODY STOP ME! SHE'S MAKING ME KILL MYSELF! STOP HER, STOP **_**ME**_**! LASH, PLEASE HELP ME!'**_

I was only a few feet from the pit now. Is there something on my face? It feels warm. And wet. What is it? Oh well, as long as it doesn't stop me from doing what everyone wants.

'_**PLEASE! HELP ME! HELP ME PLEASE! SOMEBODY!'**_

I jumped onto edge of the pit, the blades spinning inches from my toes, a comforting whir of noise and a light breeze. Something loud sounded in the background, like someone yelling. Who was it? Was it…..Bo…Boo…Boomer…COACH BOOMER! Everything had sounded fuzzy before, but it was slowly coming back. I could her whispering, lots of it. Yelling, too.

"MALIE! Malie, get down! Please, just come down! Briana's not controlling you anymore! Please, Mal! I should have told you before this all started!" That was Lash.

"Stop this RIGHT NOW! I will not stand for this to go on in my school!" That was Principal Powers.

"Hmm, it seems to be some form of hypnosis, but of what medium I cannot tell. I shall have to consult with Mr. Brocks on the matter. Although, it is HIGHLY fascinating that the intensity and length of the manipulation was able to go on through such circumstances. She was completely aware of her surroundings, yet she turned a blind eye all the same. Maybe she will allow me-" And that was Professor Medulla, as science as always. But I don't really care at the moment. This is all too much for me.

* * *

><p>Whoever the hell allowed her to worm her way back here from whatever new hellhole she'd found, they were going to pay. I'd fallen for her shit once, but not again. And I'm DEFINITELY not letting her start where it left off. And I'm letting the only person who would listen to me with an open ear have a piece of my fucking mind. And to hell with anyone who tried to stop me.<p>

After Coach Boomer had immobilized the bitch, the teachers had taken her to the detention room. First impression, my ass. More like first glimpse of the devil living in her heart.

I walked through the hallways, heading to the office, planning on taking my usual seat by the door. I couldn't go by Nurse Spex room. I'd lose what little semblance of rationality I have left if I walked in there now.

I had reached the office while I was contemplating the many ways I could file a lawsuit against the self-centered bitch. I pulled open the door, took one step to the right, and sat down in the chair.

Jamie Tisen, or Miss Tisen, as she preferred, glanced up as I entered the door before going back to the magazine she was flipping through. She didn't care for me, I didn't care for her, so we never really had much of a problem with each other.

"Who sent you this time, Mr. Martin? And for what?" She never really cared, but she was like all the other girls in this school, and she loved gossip.

"No one sent me, and I'm here because I want to speak with Principal Powers about how my devil's mistress of an ex-girlfriend just tried to make my girlfr- my friend commit suicide in the gym during a round of Save the Citizen. If that's okay?" All said with a straight face despite the slip-up. _Bravo, Lash. Your bullshit skills are still in excellent shape._ She looked at me and put down the magazine. Yep, gossip-lover.

"Pardon my language but…bitch did _what_ now?"

"Yeah, my ex came back here, for a reason you probably know already, and she hears all of these rumors about how I like one of my friends that's a girl and that I'm going out with her in secret like in Romeo & Juliet and blah-blah-blah, you know how it goes. Anyway, she hears this, gets jealous as hell, and decides to use her power of manipulation to try to get said friend to commit suicide, thinking that if she gets rid of the problem, that everything will be all hunky-dory from then on. Needless to say, I'm pissed off, friends family is furious, ex's family is furious, and my family's pissed as hell."

Miss Tinsen just stares at me, leaning against the front desk, thoughtful expression in her dark eyes.

"Your school year has just been screwed seven ways to Sunday, you know that, right?"

I just leaned back in the chair, stretching out my legs in front of me and put my hands behind my head.

"Yep, and that's why I'm gonna try to enjoy the calm before the storm. Once the storm starts, I can do nothing but ride it out."

* * *

><p>I'm a bitch and I know it. And before any Flamers decide to blow up the reviews, how would <em><strong><span>YOU<span>**_ feel if you suddenly lost all control of your body while you were still full aware of your surroundings? Huh? I know I'd flip shit like Malie, probably worse than her. But anyway, feel free to review and follow/favorite if your heart so desires. I'll see you in the next chapter.

Always,

Wisty


	14. Important Update

Hey guys,

Sorry about this, but I'm going to have to put TIRO on hiatus for a while. :C I'm not having the greatest luck with coming up with ideas and getting rid of this damn writer's block. Again, I'm sorry.

And some of you may hate me for this, or you may understand, but I'm going to see if I can get my Muse working again by posting songfics. Mostly Supernatural, but there may be TIRO related stuff thrown in. I may post them as oneshots, but that may quickly change into a drabble/series/whateveryouwannacallit in the future.

But if you guys think it's a good idea, let me know in the reviews or in my inbox (Cas knows it gathering cobwebs and dust).

All the best,

Wisty


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